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OnsL  dhmdhsuL  JwsdQlh. 
ANNUAL 

conFEHcncc 

OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 
OF  LATTER-DAY  SAINTS 


Held  in  the  Assembly  Hall  and  Temple 
SALT  LAKE  CITY,  UTAH 

OfvuL  «,  5,  6,  mi 

With  Report  of  Discourses 


Published  by  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints 
Salt  Lake  City,  Utah 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OE  AMERICA 


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SALT  LAKE  CITY,  UTAH 


THE  ONE  HUNDRED  TWELFTH  ANNUAL 
CONFERENCE  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  JESUS 
CHRIST  OF  LATTER-DAY  SAINTS 


The  One  Hundred  Twelfth  Annual  Conference  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  was  held  in  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  Saturday, 
Sunday,  and  Monday,  April  4,  5,  and  6,  1942. 

Sessions  of  the  Conference  were  held  Saturday  at  10  a.  m.,  2  p.  m., 
and  7  p.  m.  in  the  Assembly  Hall  on  Temple  Square.  Sunday  morning 
at  10  a.  m.  a  session  was  held  in  the  assembly  room  on  the  fifth  floor  of  the 
Temple,  and  a  special  testimony  meeting  was  held  in  the  same  room  at 
12:30  p.  m.  the  same  day.  The  concluding  session  of  the  Conference 
convened  Monday  morning  at  10  o'clock  in  the  Assembly  Hall  on  Temple 
Square. 

Owing  to  conditions  incident  to  the  War  emergency,  the  general 
public  were  not  invited  to  attend  this  Conference;  those  present  consisted 
of  the  General  Authorities  of  the  Church,  Presidents  of  Stakes  and  their 
counselors,  and  Presidents  of  High  Priests  quorums. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Radio  Station  KSL  of  Salt  Lake  City,  the 
proceedings  of  the  Sunday  morning  and  Monday  morning  meetings  were 
broadcast  for  the  benefit  of  the  general  public. 

President  Heber  J.  Grant  was  present  and  presided  at  all  the  sessions 
of  the  Conference,  with  the  exception  of  the  Saturday  evening  meeting. 
President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency, 
conducted  the  services  at  all  the  sessions. 

GENERAL  AUTHORITIES  OF  THE  CHURCH  PRESENT 

Of  the  First  Presidency:  Heber  J.  Grant,  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  and 
David  O.  McKay. 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles:  Rudger  Clawson,  George 
Albert  Smith,  George  F.  Richards,  Joseph  Fielding  Smith,  Stephen  L  Rich- 
ards, Richard  R.  Lyman,  John  A.  Widtsoe,  Joseph  F.  Merrill,  Charles 
A.  Callis,  Albert  E.  Bowen,  Sylvester  Q.  Cannon,  and  Harold  B.  Lee. 

Assistants  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles:  Marion  G.  Romney, 
Thomas  E.  McKay,  Clifford  E.  Young,  Alma  Sonne,  and  Nicholas  G. 
Smith. 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy:  Levi  Edgar  Young,  Antoine  R. 
Ivins,  Samuel  O.  Bennion,  John  H.  Taylor,  Rufus  K.  Hardy,  Richard  L. 
Evans,  and  Oscar  A.  Kirkham. 

Of  the  Presiding  Bishopric:  LeGrand  Richards,  Marvin  O.  Ashton, 
and  Joseph  L.  Wirthlin. 

OFFICERS  AND  OTHER  AUTHORITIES  PRESENT 

Church  Historian  and  Recorder:  Joseph  Fielding  Smith,  and  A.  Wil- 
liam Lund,  assistant.* 

Presidents  of  Stakes  and  their  counselors. 
Presidents  of  High  Priests  quorums. 


*Elder  Andrew  Jenson,  one  of  the  Assistant  Historians,  died  November  19,  1941. 


2 

Saturday,  April  4 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 


FIRST  DAY 
MORNING  MEETING 

The  first  session  of  the  Conference  was  held  in  the  Assembly  Hall 
on  Temple  Square,  and  commenced  promptly  at  10  o'clock  Saturday 
morning,  April  4,  1942. 

All  the  brethren  of  the  General  Authorities  of  the  Church  were 
present  and  on  the  rostrum. 

President  Heber  J.  Grant  presided.  President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr., 
First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency  conducted  the  services. 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

President  Grant  has  asked  me  to  conduct  the  services  this  morning. 
I  know  I  join  with  you  in  our  heartfelt  thanks  that  President  Grant  is  with 
us  again  at  our  Annual  Conference. 

This  is  rather  a  change  from  the  group  that  we  see  in  the  Tabernacle. 
I  do  not  suppose  I  ought  to  say  that  I  hope  we  make  up  at  least  in  part 
in  quality  what  we  lack  in  quantity. 

The  singing  this  morning  will  be  conducted  by  Brother  Cornwall, 
Brother  Asper  is  here  at  the  organ. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "High  On  the  Mountain  Top," 
(Hymn  Book,  page  134). 

Elder  Lorenzo  H.  Hatch,  President  of  the  Granite  Stake,  offered 
the  invocation. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "O  Say,  What  Is  Truth?"  ( Hymn 
Book,  page  71 ). 

PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT 


I shall  not  speak  loud.  In  case 
you  are  not  hearing  me  at  the  end 
of  the  room  hold  up  your  hands. 
I  should  like  very  much  to  deliver  a 
long  sermon,  I  can  think  of  enough 
to  talk  to  you  people  about  for  at 
least  two  hours,  but  it  would  not  be 
wise  to  do  so. 

You  all  know  that  I  have  been 
very  sick  for  more  than  two  years. 
To  start  with  I  could  not  raise  a 
finger  on  my  left  hand,  neither  could 
I  touch  my  chin;  my  left  eye  was 
affected,  also  my  left  leg,  necessitat- 
ing me  to  go  upstairs  one  step  at  a 


time,  and  then  lift  the  other  leg  up 
with  my  right  hand.  I  can  now  throw 
my  left  arm  any  way  I  want  to,  and 
can  go  up  and  down  stairs  without 
difficulty,  I  am  feeling  at  least  a  hun- 
dred percent,  if  not  several  hundred 
percent  better  than  I  did  at  the  time 
of  my  first  trouble.  The  doctors  said 
it  was  not  a  paralytic  stroke,  but  it 
must  have  been  a  second  cousin  at 
least.  When  meeting  my  friends 
and  they  ask  me  as  to  how  I  feel,  the 
answer  is,  "Better  than  I  was  yester- 
day." There  has  been  a  steady  im- 
provement all  the  time. 


PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT 


3 


The  night  before  last  I  slept  three 
hours,  then  lay  awake  until  morning, 
when  I  dropped  off  to  sleep  for  a 
couple  of  hours  more.  Last  night  I 
had  a  very  good  night's  sleep  and 
slept  until  five  o'clock  this  morning. 
I  got  up  and  decided  to  dictate  a  ser- 
mon for  this  occasion.  I  dictated 
two  cylinders  and  then  decided  not 
to  give  you  anything  I  had  said,  but 
to  come  here  and  trust  to  the  Lord 
to  speak  as  I  was  led.  I  desire  more 
than  I  have  language  to  tell  that 
what  I  say  may  be  for  your  good  and 
that  I  shall  have  the  benefit  of  your 
faith  and  prayers. 

I  recall  what  to  me  was  the  most 
satisfactory  sermon  of  my  life.  I  saw 
my  brother,  the  late  Brigham  Fred- 
erick Grant,  in  the  audience  and 
knew  that  he  was  seeking  a  testi- 
mony of  the  gospel.  I  prayed  earn- 
estly to  the  Lord  that  I  might  be  in- 
spired to  say  that  which  would  touch 
his  heart.  I  had  prepared  a  sermon 
in  my  own  mind.  I  took  a  book  out 
of  my  pocket  entitled  Ready  Refer- 
ences and  marked  a  lot  of  passages 
that- 1  wished  to  quote.  I  followed 
Brother  Milton  Bennion  who  had 
just  made  a  trip  around  the  world. 
He  quit  speaking  at  eighteen  minutes 
to  three  o'clock,  and  I  decided  to 
stop  at  twelve  minutes  after  three,  so 
as  "to  leave  time  for  Brother  George 
Q.  Cannon  who  had  come  into  the 
meeting  late. 

I  started  on  time  and  quit  on  time, 
and  upon  sitting  down  I  heard 
Brother  Cannon  say  to  himself — he 
was  sitting  behind  me  in  a  chair  fac- 
ing north — "Thank  God  for  the 
power  of  that  testimony."  I  had 
opened  my  Ready  References  book 
and  put  it  on  the  Bible,  and  when  I 
got  up  to  speak  I  told  the  audience 
that  never  before  in  all  my  life  had  I 
so  much  desired  their  faith  and  pray- 
ers in  my  behalf,  as  also  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Lord.  I  forgot  all  about 
that  book  and  all  about  everything 


I  had  in  mind,  and  I  preached  a  ser- 
mon on  the  divine  mission  of  the 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith  and  the  di- 
vinity of  the  mission  of  the  Savior 
of  the  world. 

When  I  heard  Brother  Cannon 
make  that  remark  to  himself — I  could 
have  touched  him  with  my  left  hand 
as  he  sat  behind  me — I  put  my  arms 
on  my  knees  and  covered  my  eyes 
with  my  hand  and  made  a  puddle  on 
the  floor,  with  tears  of  gratitude  that 
filled  my  heart.  And  then,  and  not 
until  then,  did  I  remember  the  ser- 
mon that  I  had  intended  to  preach. 

rJTHE  very  next  morning  my  brother 
came  into  my  office  and  told  me 
that  I  had  preached  by  the  inspira- 
tion of  God,  that  I  was  inspired.  I 
asked  him  what  my  subject  was. 

He  said:  "You  know  what  your 
subject  was." 

I  said:  "But  I  want  you  to  name 
it." 

He  did  so. 

I  asked  him :  "Are  you  seeking  for 
a  testimony  of  the  gospel?" 
He  said:  "Yes." 

I  said:  "Well,  what  more  do  you 
need  than  to  say  that  I  spoke  by  in- 
spiration— you  have  never  heard  me 
speak  like  that  before — and  that  the 
Lord  manifested  His  Spirit  to  me. 
You  had  better  get  your  thinking  cap 
on  your  head." 

Before  the  week  was  out  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  baptizing  him. 

Now,  my  dear  brethren,  this  is  a 
very  wonderful  gathering  of  men. 
There  rests  upon  the  General  Au- 
thorities and  you  people  who  are  here 
today  the  duty  of  leading  the  Latter- 
day  Saints,  now  numbering  over 
800,000  strong.  You  have  a  great 
responsibility,  and  each  and  every 
one  of  you  should  determine,  with 
the  help  of  the  Lord,  to  do  the  very 
best  that  you  possibly  can,  and  that 
you  will  set  an  example  of  intel- 
ligence and  devotion  to  the  work  of 


4 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

the  Lord  that  in  all  respects  shall  be 
worthy  of  imitation.  I  hope  and  pray 
that  the  Lord  will  bless  each  and 
every  one  of  you  abundantly. 

I  was  intimately  acquainted  with 
Brigham  Young  from  the  time  I  was 
a  little  child  until  his  death,  and  I 
came  into  the  Quorum  of  the  Twelve 
when  I  was  a  young  man  not  quite 
twenty-six  years  of  age.  I  was  inti- 
mate of  course  with  all  the  men  who 
succeeded  Brigham  Young  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Church,  and  I  want  to 
bear  witness  to  every  one  of  you  that 
all  of  those  men,  starting  with  John 
Taylor  and  coming  down  to  Presi- 
dent Joseph  F.  Smith,  I  know  as  I 
know  that  I  live  that  they  were  in- 
spired, wonderful  men,  that  they  had 
no  ambition  of  any  kind  or  descrip- 
tion but  to  lead  the  Latter-day  Saints 
in  the  paths  of  righteousness,  to  set 
examples  worthy  of  imitation  in  all 
respects.  They  were  in  very  deed 
men  of  God. 

Perhaps  the  one  man  of  all  others 
who  took  the  least  interest  in  big 
business  affairs  of  any  kind  was 
Brother  Woodruff.  He  had  been  a 
farmer  and  a  raiser  of  flowers  and  of 
fruits,  and  a  man  who  I  doubt  ever 
engaged  in  any  kind  of  business  that 
amounted  to  $20,000  a  year.  But  in 
the  providences  of  the  Lord,  perhaps 
he  was  the  greatest  converter  of  men 
we  have  ever  had  in  the  Church. 
Through  the  inspiration  of  the  liv- 
ing God,  in  opposition  to  the  best 
judgment  of  some  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  Church,  he  insisted  on  build- 
ing a  sugar  factory  and  establishing 
an  institution  for  the  benefit  of  the 
farmers.  Notwithstanding  myself 
and  others  during  the  panic  of  1891 
recommended  the  contract  to  build 
the  factory  be  cancelled  which  could 
have  been  done  by  the  Church  for- 
feiting the  $50,000  that  it  had  al- 
ready paid  toward  its  erection, 
Brother  Woodruff  said:  "We  will 
build  it.  The  farmers  are  entitled  to 


First  Dag 

that  factory  to  get  some  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  soil."  In  the  providences 
of  the  Lord  we  did  build  it  and  many 
of  us  ruined  ourselves  by  borrowing 
money  to  build  it.  We  have  been 
vindicated  today. 

"Mow  on  another  occasion  I  person- 
ally was  vindicated,  by  accomp- 
lishing something  that  I  shall  tell  you 
about  that  to  me  is  a  marvel;  it  is  a 
wonder,  and  it  was  through  the  in- 
spiration of  the  living  God  in  a  prom- 
ise made  to  me  by  President  Wood- 
ruff that  the  thing  was  accomplished. 

I  went  East.  Men  had  subscribed 
for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
in  our  sugar  business  and  many  of 
them  had  failed  to  put  up  the  money. 
Banks  were  failing  all  over  the 
United  States  and  money  was  lend- 
ing on  the  New  York  Stock  Ex- 
change at  one-half  of  one  percent 
a  day,  which  would  be  one  hundred 
eighty-two  and  one-half  percent  a 
year.  The  bank  of  which  I  had  been 
the  president  for  less  than  a  year  lost 
about  one-half  of  all  its  deposits,  and 
to  look  at  things  naturally  it  would 
fail.  I  prayed  about  the  matter  and 
I  felt  impressed  that  with  the  bless- 
ings of  the  Lord  I  could  raise  the 
money  necessary  to  save  the  bank. 
Brother  Woodruff  knew  all  about  it, 
and  he  said:  "Heber,  sit  down  in 
this  chair."  And  he  gave  me  a  most 
wonderful  blessing.  He  told  me  that 
I  should  go  to  New  York  and  other 
cities  in  the  East,  that  I  should  re- 
turn, and  that  I  should  get  all  the 
money  that  I  went  after,  and  more  if 
needed. 

So  I  started  with  an  absolute  as- 
surance in  my  heart,  having  no  doubt 
whatever  that  I  would  succeed.  I 
shall  now  give  you  a  brief  account  of 
my  experience. 

I  first  stopped  at  Omaha,  and  the 
president  of  the  bank  there  with 
whom  we  did  business  laughed  at 
the  idea  of  buying  from  our  bank  a 


PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT 


5 


note  of  $12,000,  signed  by  Zion's 
Cooperative  Merchantile  Institu- 
tion. 

He  said,  "I  will  give  you  some  good 
advice.  You  go  home,  call  a  meeting 
of  all  your  bankers  and  discuss  the 
situation,  and  decide  that  these  are 
perilous  times  and  that  you  must 
lend  a  little  more  money  than  is  con- 
sidered safe  and  sound,  and  it  will 
circulate  around  and  come  back  into 
your  bank  and  you  will  be  safe." 

I  said:  "Mr.  President,  I  have  not 
come  to  you  for  advice,  I  have  come 
East  for  money,  and  if  you  will  not 
buy  one  of  these  notes  for  $12,000  of 
Zion's  Cooperative  Mercantile  In- 
stitution I  will  go  farther  East  and 
get  the  money." 

He  said:  "Well,  my  friend,  you 
are  making  a  mistake." 

I  went  to  Chicago.  I  doubled  my 
ante,  as  the  gambler  would  say.  I 
asked  the  president  of  the  bank  in 
Chicago  to  lend  me  $24,000  and  take 
two  of  these  notes. 

He  laughed  and  said:  "Mr. 
Grant,  how  old  is  your  bank?" 

I  said:  "Not  quite  a  year  yet." 

"How  long  have  you  been  in  the 
banking  business?" 

"This  is  the  first  time  I  have  been 
connected  with  a  bank  of  this  kind." 

He  said:  "Well,  I  have  been  a 
banker  all  my  life,  and  my  father  be- 
fore me.  You  go  home  and  call  a 
meeting  of  your  bankers  and  discuss 
the  matter,  and  all  of  you  loan  a  lit- 
tle bit  more  than  is  considered  safe, 
because  we  are  having  to  take  care 
of  our  customers  and  are  in  as  bad 
a  fix,  if  not  worse,  than  you  are,  and 
the  money  will  go  around  and 
around  and  get  back  to  your  bank 
and  you  will  be  all  right." 

I  said:  "I  did  not  need  to  come 
here  to  get  your  advice,  sir;  I  had  the 
same  advice  from  the  president  of 
the  Omaha  National  Bank.  I  told 
him  I  would  stop  off  as  I  came  home 
and  tell  him  where  I  got  the  money." 


He  laughed  and  said:  "Young 
man,  have  you  read  the  morning 
paper?" 

I  said,  "I  have." 

He  said:    "Have  you  read  the 
financial  news?" 
"I  have." 

"What  is  money  lending  at  in 
New  York?" 

I  said:  "One-half  of  one  percent 
a  day,  and  the  way  I  learned  mental 
arithmetic  that  is  one  hundred  and 
eighty-two  and  a  half  percent  a 
year." 

"What  do  you  expect  to  pay  for 
money?" 

"Six  percent,  the  regular  rate  to 
customers." 

"Well,  my  dear  young  man,  it 
will  be  a  long  time  before  you  come 
back.  You  say  you  will  stop  and  tell 
me  where  you  got  the  money.  It  will 
be  a  long  while  before  I  see  you 
again." 

I  thanked  him  and  told  him  I 
hoped  it  would  not  be  so  long  as  he 
thought. 

I  had  no  doubt  that  I  would  get 
the  money. 

T  went  to  New  York  and  I  doubled 
again.  I  went  to  the  bank  that  we 
were  doing  business  with  in  New 
York  and  I  asked  for  $48,000.  _The 
man  with  whom  I  talked  said:  "The 
idea  of  your  coming  here  the  very 
first  time  we  ever  saw  you  and  ask- 
ing for  such  a  loan  in  the  midst  of  a 
panic." 

(I  would  like  you  to  remember 
that  I  had  never  talked  with  a  banker 
before  in  Omaha,  New  York,  or 
Chicago  about  loans  of  any  kind  or 
any  description.) 

He  said:  "The  idea  of  your  com- 
ing in  here  almost  a  stranger  and 
asking  for  $48,000.  Why,  we  would 
not  think  of  such  a  thing  as  giving 
you  the  money." 

I  said:  "Would  you  kindly  give 
me  a  sheet  of  paper?" 


6 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

"Certainly." 

He  gave  me  the  paper  and  I  wrote 
my  name  on  it  the  size  of  the  whole 
sheet  of  paper;  and  I  hit  my  signa- 
ture and  said:  "Do  you  know  that 
signature?" 

"Of  course  I  do." 

"Well,  I  did  not  come  in  here  as 
a  gold  brick  man,  I  came  here  as 
your  customer  from  whom  you 
solicited  a  bank  account.  I  did  not 
come  here  to  be  insulted." 

He  said :  "I  beg  your  humble  par- 
don. I  had  no  right  to  say  we  did 
not  know  you  when  we  knew  your 
signature." 

I  said:  "Well,  my  friend,  I  am  just 
a  young  man  from  the  West.  I  am 
just  thirty-five,  and  this  is  my  first 
experience  in  borrowing  money  for 
our  bank.  I  can  give  you  some 
pointers  as  to  how  we  "do  things  in 
the  wild  and  woolly  West.  When 
a  man  tries  to  borrow  money  from  us 
and  we  are  not  sure  of  his  security, 
we  ask  him  for  some  more  security, 
and  we  talk  it  over;  and  if  he  finally 
has  sufficient  security,  we  let  him 
have  the  money." 

He  said:  "Excuse  me,  sir,  but  we 
do  not  allow  any  customer  to  meet 
with  our  committee  to  discuss  ques- 
tions of  that  kind.  We  take  a  writ- 
ten application  for  the  money,  then 
we  discuss  it  and  make  the  loan  or 
turn  it  down." 

I  said:  "Will  you  kindly  give  me 
another  piece  of  paper?  I  will  make 
a  written  application.  When  is  your 
committee  going  to  meet?" 

"In  twenty  minutes,"  as  I  remem- 
ber it. 

The  letter  I  wrote  (  I  wish  I  had 
kept  a  copy )  was  as  near  as  I  can  re- 
member, as  follows:  "I  am  asking 
you  to  purchase  four  notes  of  Zion's 
Cooperative  Mercantile  Institution. 
Being  one  of  the  directors  of  the  in- 
stitution I  know  it  is  able  to  pay 
these  notes  as  they  fall  due,  and  I  am 
giving  you  these  notes  with  the  en- 


firs*  Day 

dorsement  of  the  directors.  We 
bought  them  without  any  endorse- 
ment. The  directors  were  perfectly 
willing  to  put  their  names  on  the 
back  of  these  notes  because  they 
know  that  they  will  be  paid.  Now 
if  you  do  not  wish  to  take  the  notes 
of  an  institution  that  is  as  old  if  not 
older  than  your  bank,  that  has  never 
yet  failed  to  meet  its  obligations,  that 
now  offers  you  its  note  with  the  en- 
dorsement of  a  half-million  dollar 
bank,  the  endorsement  of  the  direc- 
tors (the  endorsement  was  not  on 
the  note  originally  when  we  bought 
it ) ,  you  take  my  advice  and  quit  do- 
ing business  so  far  away  from  home." 

When  the  committee  met,  I  no- 
ticed that  the  president  of  the  bank 
was  quite  excited.  I  could  not  hear 
what  he  said,  but  he  was  very  ani- 
mated. I  remained  until  after  the 
meeting  and  spent  my  time  praying 
to  the  Lord  to  soften  their  hearts  so 
that  they  would  give  me  the  money. 

I  afterwards  learned  that  he  said : 
"Zion's  Cooperative  Mercantile  In- 
stitution, with  the  all-seeing  eye  in 
the  corner,  and  'Holiness  to  the 
Lord!'  Why,  it  is  good  for  sore 
eyes;  I  haven't  seen  one  of  those 
notes  for  ten  years.  When  I  was  the 
third  assistant  cashier  of  this  bank 
my  duty  was  to  investigate  com- 
mercial paper,  and  I  was  instructed 
by  the  former  president,  who  is 
dead  and  gone,  never  to  fail  to  buy 
every  Zion's  Cooperative  Mercantile 
Institution  note  that  was  offered.  I 
bought  them  time  and  time  again  as 
third  assistant  cashier,  but  there 
were  no  names  on  the  back  of  them. 
Tke  idea  of  a  note  which  on  the  back 
is  covered  with  the  signatures  of  in- 
fluential men  and  has  the  endorse- 
ment of  a  $500,000  bank,  not  being 
accepted.  If  there  is  any  one  bank 
that  we  ought  to  take  care  of  it  is 
this  identical  bank.  Take  the  notes 
and  take  them  quick." 

And  I  got  the  money. 


PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT 


7 


I  then  went  to  H.  B.  Claflin  and 
Company,  and  I  asked  Mr.  John 
Claflin,  the  president,  to  buy  five  Z. 
C.  M.  I.  notes  of  $5000.00  each.  He 
said:  "The  institution  is  so  solid  and 
so  fine  that  I  am  happy  to  buy  them 
from  you." 

I  then  went  to  Kunz  Brothers 
Bank  and  asked  them  to  buy  $25,000 
worth  of  the  notes. 

They  said:  "We  do  not  do  busi- 
ness with  you  at  all,  and  you  have 
never  had  any  business  with  us." 

I  said:  "Yes,  but  Mr.  Hills  of  the 
Deseret  Bank  does  business  with 
you  and  he  authorized  me  to  say 
that  these  notes  are  absolutely  per- 
fect and  will  be  paid  and  he  knows 
it,  and  he  hoped  that  you  would  let 
me  have  this  money." 

He  said:  "Well,  I  will  let  you 
have  $12,500;  that  is  all  I  can  do, 
that  is  more  than  our  share  as  we  are 
not  doing  business  with  you." 

I  said:  "I  haven't  any  notes  of 
odd  amounts,  just  make  it  $15,000." 

He  said  "All  right,  I  will  take 
three  of  them." 

I  handed  him  the  three  notes  and 
got  the  money. 

Then  I  sent  a  telegram  to  the  pres- 
ident of  the  Chicago  bank,  telling 
him  I  was  to  be  there  a  long  long 
time  getting  the  money,  that  I  had 
been  there  forty-eight  hour's  and 
that  I  had  got  $88,000;  that  I  got 
$15,000  at  Kunz  Brothers;  $25,000 
at  Claflin  and  Company  and  $48,- 
000  at  the  National  Park  Bank. 
"Kindly  wire  and  ask  for  their  con- 
firmation of  having  made  these  loans 
to  me  at  six  percent,  and  when  you 
get  the  answers  I  hope  you  will  wire 
that  I  can  send  you  the  other  $12,000 
note  for  which  I  need  the  money." 

I  thought  he  would  answer  "No," 
and  that  I  would  change  my  bank  ac- 
count as  I  was  coming  West,  but  he 
answered:  "Send  the  note,"  and  I 
sent  it. 


T  will  not  go  into  further  detail  ex- 
cept to  mention  one  more  sale.  I 
went  into  the  National  Bank  of 
Hartford.  The  president  had  been 
here  in  Salt  Lake  with  a  letter  of  in- 
troduction to  me  from  the  president 
of  the  Hartford  Fire  Insurance  Com- 
pany. I  had  spent  the  day  with  him. 
I  had  taken  him  into  the  Z.  C.  M.  I. 
store,  and  I  had  let  him  walk  all 
over  the  store  from  cellar  to  garret, 
and  he  was  delighted  with  the  in- 
stitution and  the  way  the  goods 
looked.  When  I  told  him  I  wanted 
him  to  buy  some  Z.  C.  M.  I.  notes, 
he  said:  "Mr.  Grant,  I  will  have 
pleasure  in  buying  a  couple  of  them; 
I  have  a  meeting  of  our  committee,  I 
will  see  you  in  a  few  minutes." 

He  spoke  to  a  clerk  and  told  him 
to  buy  two  five  thousand  dollar 
notes,  and  immediately  after  he  got 
through  with  the  committee  meeting 
he  said:  "Come  with  me,"  and  we 
went  into  the  First  National  Bank. 

He  said:  "Mr.  Grant  is  here  try- 
ing to  sell  notes  of  the  Zion's  Coop- 
erative Mercantile  Institution.  I 
have  been  all  through  the  store  from 
cellar  to  garret;  they  show  quick  as- 
sets of  four  to  one.  They  are  abso- 
lutely sound,  and  I  want  you  to  buy 
two  of  the  notes." 

The  man  said:  "Why,  we  are  not 
buying  any  notes.  Money  is  half 
of  one  percent  a  day." 

"Neither  am  I,  but  I  am  taking  care 
of  my  friends.  This  is  my  friend, 
Mr.  Grant,  and  I  expect  you  to  buy 
a  couple  of  these  notes." 

He  said:  "Oh,  give  me  one;  one 
is  enough." 

My  friend  said:  "We  took  two." 
The  other  gentleman  said:  "If 
you  took  two,  we  will  take  two." 

To  cut  a  long  story  short,  I  stayed 
there  not  quite  a  month,  and  I  bor- 
rowed $336,000  at  six  percent.  To 
my  personal  knowledge  George 
Romney,  one  of  the  truest  friends 
I  ever  had  and  a  man  who  had  been 


8 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

on  my  note  for  many  thousand  dol- 
lars without  sufficient  security  when 
I  was  in  distress,  thought  it  was 
ridiculous,  and  so  did  others  of  my 
friends,  for  me  to  go  East  and  try 
to  borrow  money  at  six  percent. 
They  laughed  at  the  idea  and,  I 
understand,  talked  about  it  in  a 
meeting,  the  idea  of  my  attempting 
to  do  this;  but  I  not  only  went  and 
got  all  I  went  for,  but  as  Brother 
Woodruff  promised  that  I  should, 
I  arranged  for  more  if  needed.  (I 
had  a  perfect  assurance  that  I  would 

Set  it,  and  he  said,  "You  can  get  a 
ttle  more  if  you  need  it.")  Just 
before  leaving  for  the  train  in  New 
York  I  received  a  telegram  asking 
for  $48,000  more  money.  I  felt  sure 
that  it  was  not  needed.  I  wrote  to 
Hartford  asking  for  $48,000,  and  the 
answer  came  to  me  at  Chicago  that 
I  could  have  it. 

I  returned  home  and  found  that 
the  extra  money  was  not  needed. 

This  was  one  of  the  greatest 
promises  that  was  ever  made,  and  I 
was  able  to  fulfil  that  promise.  Not 
for  one  moment  did  I  have  any 
fear  that  I  would  fail  to  get  the 
money,  because  of  the  promise  of 
that  humble,  inspired,  wonderful 
man,  Wilford  Woodruff. 

When  I  returned  to  Chicago,  I 
stopped  to  see  the  president  of  the 
bank  there,  and  explained  what  I 
had  done,  and  secured  the  money  for 
the  $12,000  note  that  he  had  agreed 
to  purchase.  When  I  called  on  him 
on  my  way  East,  he  did  not  invite  me 
into  the  office,  but  stood  behind  the 
counter  and  talked  to  me  and  gave 
me  his  advice.  When  I  met  him  on 
my  way  back,  he  invited  me  in  and 
was  very  friendly. 

When  I  got  to  Omaha  I  called  on 
the  president  of  the  Omaha  National 
Bank  as  I  had  promised  to  do,  and 
told  him  where  I  got  the  money.  He 
immediately  telephoned  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Union  Pacific  System 


First  Day 

telling  him  to  come  down  to  the 
bank.  He  said:  "I  want  you  to  meet 
a  young  man  who  has  borrowed 
$336,000  in  New  York  during  the 
panic  and  got  it  at  six  percent.  The 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  ought  to  get 
acquainted  with  this  young  man,  he 
is  the  kind  of  man  the  Union  Pacific 
are  dealing  with." 

I  am  grateful  today  that  I  am  hon- 
ored by  being  a  director  of  that  road. 

'M'ow,  my  dear  brethren,  I  could  go 
on  talking  to  you  by  the  hour 
of  things  that  have  come  to  me  that 
have  demonstrated  to  me  beyond  the 
peradventure  of  doubt  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  men  who  have  preceded 
me  as  the  presidents  of  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 
On  the  day  that  Brother  Joseph  F. 
Smith  bade  me  good-bye,  and  he 
died  that  very  night,  he  told  me  that 
the  Lord  never  makes  a  mistake.  He 
said:  "You  have  a  great  responsi- 
bility resting  upon  you.  The  Lord 
knows  whom  He  wants  to  preside 
over  His  Church  and  He  never 
makes  a  mistake."  I  can  testify  to  you 
that  He  has  not  made  a  mistake  in  my 
case  any  more  than  He  did  with 
each  and  all  of  my  predecessors. 

I  shall  take  the  time  to  relate  one 
more  incident.  Never  did  Brother 
Taylor  direct  the  course  of  the 
apostles  without  inspiration,  neither 
did  Brother  Woodruff,  nor  Brother 
Snow,  nor  Brother  Joseph  F.  Smith. 
God  to  my  knowledge  inspired  those 
men  and  directed  them. 

Brothers  Francis  M.  Lyman  and 
John  Henry  Smith  were  told  by 
President  John  Taylor  to  go  to  some 
town — I  shall  not  mention  where  it 
is — and  to  have  a  man  sustained  as 
the  president  of  the  stake.  Un- 
doubtedly there  are  some  of  you  men 
who  know  where  it  was,  I  won't  give 
the  name — I  won't  tell  that. 

Brother  Lyman  said:  "Why, 
Brother  Taylor,  I  know  this  brother, 


PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT  9 


and  I  know  that  the  people  will  not 
sustain  him." 

Brother  Taylor  said:  "You  and 
Brother  John  Henry  Smith  are  called 
upon  a  mission  to  have  him  voted 
for  and  sustained  as  president." 

Brother  Lyman  later  in  the  day 
said:  "Suppose  these  people  won't 
sustain  that  man,  what  are  we  to 
do?" 

Brother  Taylor  said:  "But  you 
are  called  upon  a  mission  to  have  him 
sustained;  that  is  what  you  are  to 
do." 

Brother  Lyman  brought  it  up 
again  a  third  time  and  Brother  Tay- 
lor said:  "Do  you  understand  Eng- 
lish? Don't  you  know  what  mission 
I  have  placed  upon  you  two  men?  It 
is  to  have  him  sustained." 

Later  in  the  day  Brother  John 
Henry  thought  the  president  had  not 
thoroughly  considered  the  matter, 
and  he  brought  it  up. 

Brother  Taylor  said :  "Didn't  you 
hear  what  I  said  to  Lyman?  You 
two  men  are  called  to  go  to  that 
place  and  have  the  people  sustain 
this  man." 

Brother  Lyman  gave  me  the  credit 
of  feeding  him  more  meals  and  giv- 
ing him  more  opportunity  to  sleep  in 
my  house  than  all  the  rest  of  his 
relatives  in  Salt  Lake  City  combined. 
He  made  my  home  his  home  during 
the  two  years  that  I  presided  in 
Tooele,  and  after  I  became  an  apos- 
tle he  made  my  home  his  home 
whenever  he  came  in  to  Salt  Lake 
from  Tooele. 

As  we  came  past  the  president's 
office  after  our  meeting  in  the  En- 
dowment House,  he  said:  "Heber, 
President  Taylor  does  not  under- 
stand the  condition;  those  people 
have  rebelled  and  they  will  not  sus- 
tain this  man.  He  was  busy  with  our 
regular  meeting,  and  he  did  not  get 
it  into  his  head  that  it  cannot  be 
done.  I  will  step  in  here.  You  tell 


your  wife  I  will  be  a  little  late,  but 
don't  delay  your  dinner  until  I  get 
there.  Go  home  and  eat  it,  and  I  will 
come  along  later." 

I  said:  "I  will  wait  for  you."  I 
thought  it  wouldn't  be  long. 

He  came  out  in  a  moment  and 
said:  "I  wish  I  had  not  gone  to  see 
the  president.  Heber,  fast  and  pray 
for  us;  I  do  not  see  how  under  heav- 
en we  can  change  this  condition.  All 
the  bishops  and  their  counselors,  the 
high  council,  the  patriarchs,  and  the 
presidency  of  the  high  priests  quor- 
um have  requested  that  this  good 
brother  be  dropped  and  that  they 
have  another  president.  Brother 
John  and  I  will  have  to  pray  all  the 
way  from  Milford  until  we  get  to 
the  place." 

'VJlThizn  they  arrived,  Brother  Ly- 
man brought  all  these  people 
together  who  had  signed  the  peti- 
tion and  said  "Now,  brethren,  we  do 
not  want  a  great  number  of  you  men 
to  confess  the  president's  mistakes, 
but  we  will  step  out  of  the  room,  and 
you  appoint  one  man  to  do  the  talk- 
ing. You  tell  him  everything  you  can 
think  of  against  the  president.  If  he 
has  forgotten  anything,  give  him  a 
chance  to  speak  again,  and  then  we 
will  come  back  and  hear  it  all.  We 
have  come  here  to  fix  up  things,  and 
we  are  going  to  do  just  what  you 
people  want  us  to  do." 

When  they  got  into  the  other 
room  John  Henry  said:  "For  heav- 
en's sake,  Lyman,  did  you  lose  your 
head?  They  want  a  new  president, 
they  have  signed  their  names  for  a 
new  president." 

Brother  Lyman  said:  "Well,  it 
must  have  been  a  slip  of  the  tongue. 
We  will  have  to  pray  just  that  much 
harder." 

When  the  man  who  had  been  se- 
lected to  be  their  spokesman  got 
through  with  his  talk  of  nearly  an 


10 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

hour,  Brother  Lyman  said:  "Has 
he  forgotten  anything?" 

They  said:  "No,  he  has  told  the 
truth." 

Brother  Lyman  said:  "Well,  that 
is  marvelous.  We  had  never 
dreamed  that  this  man  had  so  many 
faults  and  failings.  Really,  if  there 
is  somebody  who  would  like  to  tell 
something  good  about  him  we  would 
like  to  hear  it." 

A  man  got  up  and  said:  "I  can  say 
something  good  about  him,  about  his 
generosity,  his  liberality."  Then  he 
commenced  weeping,  and  said: 
"Brother  Lyman,  will  you  scratch 
my  name  off  that  list  and  let  me  vote 
for  him." 

Brother  Lyman  said:  "All  right. 
Does  anybody  else  feel  that  way?" 
About  one-third  of  them  got  up. 

He  said:  "Well,  you  may  go 
home,  it  is  rather  late,  and  the  others 
of  us  will  discuss  this  matter  fur- 
ther." 

He  then  said  to  the  spokesman: 
"Get  up  and  tell  that  story  again, 
because  it  is  news  to  us;  we  never 
dreamed  this  brother  had  so  many 
failings." 

So  the  man  got  up  and  told  it  over 
again. 

Another  man  jumped  up  and  said: 
"Brother  Lyman,  please  take  my 
name  off  that  list.  Let  me  vote  for 
him." 

Brother  Lyman  said:  "All  right. 
Does  anybody  else  feel  that  way?" 

About  half  of  them  stood  up. 

He  said:  "All  right.  Your  folks 
are  wondering  why  you  are  out  so 
late;  we  will  excuse  you." 

Then  he  said  to  this  man  again: 
"Now  get  up  and  tell  us  that  story 
again." 

The  man  got  up  and  told  the  story 
once  more. 

Brother  Lyman  said:  "Two  men 
have  tried  to  tell  something  good 
about  this  man  and  failed,  but  have 


First  Day 

asked  permission  to  vote  for  him  to- 
morrow. Is  there  anybody  else  here 
who  feels  to  sustain  him?"  And  they 
all  stood  up. 

He  said:  "All  right.  Good  night, 
brethren."  And  he  turned  to  John 
Henry  and  said:  "John,  will  you 
sustain  him?" 

John  laughed  and  said:  "I  will." 

By  this  time  I  think  it  was  after 
half  past  twelve  or  one  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  The  next  morning  Brother 
Lyman  was  able  to  say  to  the  people: 
"All  of  the  bishops  and  their  coun- 
selors, the  high  council,  the  patri- 
arch, the  presidency  of  the  high 
priests  quorum,  every  one  of  them 
has  asked  permission  to  vote  for 
Brother  So  and  So  as  the  president 
of  your  stake,  and  we  have  agreed 
to  let  them  do  so.  If  any  of  you  want 
to  vote  the  other  way  there  will  be 
no  condemnation."  They  got  a  unan- 
imous vote  to  sustain  that  man  as 
president  of  the  stake. 

When  Brothers  Lyman  and  Smith 
returned  they  made  their  report  of 
what  had  happened.  Brother  Tay- 
lor, when  something  pleased  him 
immensely,  used  to  shake  his  body 
and  laugh;  and  he  said;  "Twins, 
twins,  twins,  (he  nearly  always 
called  those  two  men  twins)  it 
wasn't  such  a  hard  job  after  all,  was 
it?  Now,  this  brother  is  a  big- 
hearted,  fine  man,  but  he  makes  mis- 
takes. He  is  sick  abed  now,  and  he 
never  would  have  recovered,  he 
would  have  died  a  broken-hearted 
man  if  he  had  not  been  sustained. 
He  will  be  well  in  three  months  and 
feeling  fine.  Go  down  there  and  put 
your  arm  around  him  and  say:  'Now 
that  the  people  are  loving  you  and 
have  unanimously  sustained  you, 
don't  you  think  it  would  be  well  to 
resign?'  and  he  will  jump  at  the 
chance  and  you  assume  the  author- 
ity to  accept  his  resignation." 

And  that  is  how  it  worked  out. 


PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT 


11 


'J'here  are  things  that  I  could  go 
on  by  the  hour  telling  you  re- 
garding advice  given  by  President 
Taylor.  You  have  all  seen  in  The 
Improvement  Era  the  account  of  my 
nearest  and  dearest  friend's  staying 
in  the  army — Richard  W.  Young — 
under  the  advice  of  President  Tay- 
lor, and  how  it  worked  out.  It  was 
marvelous. 

I  want  to  tell  you  that  starting 
with  Brigham  Young  and  coming 
down  to  your  humble  servant,  the 
Lord  has  been  with  us  and  has  di- 
rected this  Church.  May  the  Lord 
help  us  so  to  live  that  you  will  sus- 
tain us,  and  may  I  never  live  long 
enough  that  when  I  am  in  favor  of  a 
thing  and  all  the  brethren  are  in 


favor  of  it,  such  as  was  the  case 
when  we  were  opposed  to  bringing 
[Whisky  back,  that  Utah  and  the 
Mormons  will  be  in  opposition  to  us. 
I  would  almost  have  staked  my  life, 
knowing  that  the  people  know  that 
we  did  not  want  to  have  whisky 
again,  that  the  people  would  not 
have  voted  to  bring  it  back.  If  we 
would  pay  our  tithing  to  God,  and 
if  we  and  all  the  people  of  this  na- 
tion would  stop  using  tobacco  and 
drinking  tea,  coffee,  and  liquor,  I  do 
not  care  if  this  war  cost  $110,000,- 
000,000— we  could  pay  it  all. 

God  bless  us  by  His  Spirit  always, 
I  ask  it  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Amen. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

We  who  work  with  President  Grant  know  that  he  is  a  prophet  of 
God,  that  God  does  direct  him  and  give  him  His  inspiration,  just  as  he 
has  testified  to  us  about  his  predecessors. 


PRESIDENT  RUDGER  CLAWSON 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


B1 


rethren,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  be  here 
in  this  meeting  at  the  General 
Conference. 
We  are  highly  blessed  in  having  with 
us  this  morning  President  Grant,  and 
to  see  that  he  is  holding  up  splendidly 
and  that  he  speaks  with  power  and 
authority.  We  rejoice  to  sit  under  the 
sound  of  his  voice,  and  I  am  sure  it  will 
be  a  pleasure  also  to  the  brethren  who 
are  assembled  to  hear  from  the  coun- 
selors in  the  Presidency,  the  Twelve, 
and  other  Authorities  in  the  order  in 
which  they  will  be  called.  These  men 
are  clothed  upon  with  power — the 
power  of  the  Priesthood.  I  take  it  that 
every  man  in  this  room  this  morning 
holds  the  Priesthood  because  the  Priest- 
hood has  been  vested  with  great  power 
and  authority  and  that  is  shown  by  the 


printed  word,  by  the  revelations  of 
God  unto  His  Church. 

If  a  man  would  ascend  to  exaltation 
and  glory  he  must  have  the  Priesthood. 
Without  the  Priesthood  we  are  help- 
less. With  the  Priesthood  we  can  ac- 
complish much. 

I  take  very  great  pleasure,  my  breth- 
ren, in  referring  you  to  the  eighty-fourth 
section  of  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants, 
which  is  a  revelation  from  God  and 
refers  to  the  work  in  which  we  are  en- 
gaged. Of  necessity  I  must  speak  very 
briefly.  I  will  read  a  few  words  from 
this  revelation,  commencing  with  verse 
32: 

And  the  sons  of  Moses  and  of  Aaron 
shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
upon  Mount  Zion  in-the  Lord's  house,  whose 
sons  are  ye;  and  also  many  whom  I  have 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


12 

Saturday,  April  4 

called  and  sent  forth  to  build  up  my  church. 

For  whoso  is  faithful  unto  the  obtaining 
these  two  priesthoods  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  and  the  magnifying  their  calling, 
are  sanctified  by  the  Spirit  unto  the  renew- 
ing of  their  bodies. 

They  become  the  sons  of  Moses  and  of 
Aaron  and  the  seed  of  Abraham,  and  the 
church  and  kingdom,  and  the  elect  of  God. 

And  also  all  they  who  receive  this  priest- 
hood receiveth  me,  saith  the  Lord; 

For  he  that  receiveth  my  servants  re- 
ceiveth me; 

And  he  that  receiveth  me  receiveth  my 
Father; 

And  he  that  receiveth  my  Father  re- 
ceiveth my  Father's  kingdom;  therefore  all 
that  my  Father  hath  shall  be  given  unto  him. 

And  this  is  according  to  the  oath  and 
covenant  which  belongeth  to  the  priesthood. 

Therefore,  all  those  who  receive  the 
priesthood,  receive  this  oath  and  covenant 
of  my  Father,  which  he  cannot  break,  neither 
can  it  be  moved. 

But  whoso  breaketh  this  covenant  after 
he  hath  received  it,  and  altogether  turneth 
therefrom,  shall  not  have  forgiveness  of 
sins  in  this  world  nor  in  the  world  to  come. 

And  wo  unto  all  those  who  come  not  unto 
this  priesthood  which  ye  have  received, 
which  I  now  confirm  upon  you  who  are 
present  this  day,  by  mine  own  voice  out 
of  the  heavens;  and  even  I  have  given  the 
heavenly  hosts  and  mine  angels  charge 
concerning  you. 

And  I  now  give  unto  you  a  command- 
ment to  beware  concerning  yourselves,  to 
give  diligent  heed  to  the  words  of  eternal 
life. 

For  you  shall  live  by  every  word  that 
proceedeth  forth  from  the  mouth  of  God. 
(D.  &  C.  84:32-44) 

There  is  much  more,  but  you  can  see 
from  that  which  you  have  heard  that 
the  Priesthood  truly  has  great  power, 
and  unless  we  make  up  our  minds  to 
magnify  the  Priesthood,  it  would  have 
been  better  that  we  had  never  had  it. 
It  is  like  a  two-edged  sword  that  cuts 
both  ways,  cuts  to  the  right  and  cuts 
to  the  left.  It  also  condemns  those 
who  receive  the  Priesthood  but  fail  to 


First  Dag 

magnify  it.  It  is  made  very  plain  here 
and  that  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of 
the  revelations  of  God;  they  are  adapted 
to  our  understanding  by  simple  lan- 
guage, without  scientific  phrasing.  So 
that  the  young,  even  the  young  men  of 
the  Aaronic  Priesthood  can  compre- 
hend much  of  the  foregoing  revelation 
because  of  the  simplicity  of  the  language 
in  which  it  was  given. 

I  wish  to  bear  to  you,  my  brethren 
and  sisters,  my  testimony.  I  know  that 
this  is  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord  and  that  He  is.  in  communication 
with  the  Church.  The  spirit  of  revela- 
tion is  with  us,  and  that  is  why  we  should 
seek  the  word  that  is  given. 

I  know  that  Joseph  Smith  was  a  true 
prophet  of  God,  a  mighty  messenger  of 
truth,  and  a  great  builder  of  faith,  and 
that  his  successors  have  worked  under 
the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  con- 
tinually to  strengthen  the  Church.  I 
can  assure  you,  brethren,  that  this  peo- 
ple will  carry  on  the  kingdom  of  God 
by  their  faithfulness  and  devotion  to 
the  work.  I  am  happy  to  be  in  the 
harness.  I  feel  that  I  am  in  absolute 
harmony  with  the  First  Presidency,  my 
file  leaders,  and  with  my  brethren  of 
the  Twelve  with  whom  I  am  intimately 
associated.  I  testify  to  you  that  it  is 
the  truth  that  the  Presidency  and  the 
Twelve  and  the  Assistants  to  the 
Twelve,  the  First  Council  of  Seventy, 
the  Presiding  Bishopric,  the  Acting 
Patriarch,  and  many  others  are  follow- 
ing along  the  path  of  rectitude  and 
faithfulness,  and  in  the  end,  brethren, 
the  Lord  will  triumph,  His  Church  will 
flourish  and  His  faithful  people,  the 
members  of  the  Church,  will  be  saved 
and  exalted  in  His  presence. 

Now  I  feel  to  ask  the  Lord  to  bless 
,  us  and  to  guide  us  continually,  that  we 
may  not  be  overcome  by  temptation 
and  lose  the  spirit  and  power  that  is 
upon  us,  I  humbly  pray  in  the  worthy 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  Amen. 


The  congregation  sang  three  verses  of  the  hymn,  "I  Know  That  My 
Redeemer  Lives"  (Hymn  Book,  page  158). 


ELDER  GEORGE  ALBERT  SMITH 


13 


ELDER  GEORGE  ALBERT  SMITH 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Ttvelve  Apostles 


This  seems  like  old  times.  When 
I  was  a  new  member  of  the  Quo- 
rum of  the  Twelve  a  group  like 
this  used  to  assemble  in  this  building 
after  every  General  Conference,  and 
we  listened  to  the  instructions  of  the 
General  Authorities  of  the  Church.  The 
presidents  of  stakes  and  associates  went 
back  to  their  fields  of  labor  feeling  that 
they  had  indeed  waited  upon  the  Lord, 
and  not  in  vain. 

I  trust  that  this  morning  I  may  be  led 
to  say  something  that  will  be  helpful, 
because  it  seems  to  me  that  some  kind 
of  encouragement  is  most  desirable  just 
now. 

There  are  in  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  today  892,- 
080  members.  They  have  been  gather- 
ing from  the  nations  of  the  world  during 
one  hundred  twelve  years,  in  the  face 
of  almost  constant  opposition  and  often 
during  bitter  persecution.  We  are  rep- 
resentatives of  those  faithful  souls  who 
had  the  courage  to  face  the  wilderness 
and  endure  privation  that  they  might 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  their  consciences.  In  1846,  when 
the  Pioneers  left  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  and 
vicinity,  they  had  been  stripped  of  near- 
ly all  their  possessions.  They  had 
been  robbed  and  plundered  by  so-called 
Christians.  In  1847  they  came  into 
this  Indian  country  to  find  peace,  be- 
lieving that  God  would  overrule  their 
distresses  for  good,  which  He  did,  most 
wonderfully.  In  a  few  weeks  the 
leaders  went  back  to  Winter  Quarters 
for  the  main  body  of  the  Saints,  and 
they  left  Patriarch  John  Smith,  the  un- 
cle of  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith,  to  pre- 
side over  this  section  of  the  country, 
designated  as  "The  Salt  Lake  Stake." 
He  was  not  a  strong  man;  he  was  rather 
frail,  albeit  a  man  of  great  faith. 

Today,  with  the  world  in  the  con- 
dition it  is,  it  seems  a  wonderful  priv- 
ilege to  be  called  together  here,  you 
men  who  are  presiding  as  the  leaders  in 
the  stakes  of  Zion,  you  men  who  have 
been  set  apart  to  represent  God  in  the 


districts  in  which  you  labor,  and  to  fol- 
low the  leaders  of  the  Church  who 
preside  over  you. 

These  are  perilous  times,  brethren, 
I  have  no  doubt  that  many  of  you  here 
have  seen  your  sons  depart  to  join  the 
armed  forces  of  the  United  States  and 
have  mourned  that  it  was  necessary  for 
them  to  go.  When  they  return,  if  they 
have  kept  the  commandments  of  God, 
they  will  have  witnessed  His  power 
and  His  strength  in  their  preservation. 
This  is  not  the  Church  of  Joseph  Smith 
or  Brigham  Young.  It  is  not  the  Church 
of  any  man.  This  is  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord.  He  has  given  rules  to 
govern  it  and  made  them  so  plain  that  a 
wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  need  not 
err  in  following  His  teachings;  yet  there 
have  been  those  in  the  Church  who  have 
failed,  who  have  fallen  by  the  wayside, 
who  have  come  under  the  power  of  the 
adversary  and  surrendered  to  evil.  But 
those  who  have  kept  the  command- 
ments of  God,  those  who  have  stood  in 
the  places  to  which  they  have  been 
called,  those  who  have  been  the  leaders 
in  Israel  from  the  beginning,  who  have 
kept  the  faith,  have  been  magnified, 
honored,  and  sustained  by  our  Heaven- 
ly Father  until  the  time  came  for  them 
to  return  to  their  Maker. 

I  say  to  you  brethren  this  morning, 
I  say  to  all  of  us,  because  we 
are  all  responsible,  that  here  in  this 
room  today  is  the  leadership  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints.  This  group  is  the  one  that  has 
been  chosen  by  the  Lord  to  carry  on 
His  work  and  to  preside  over  the  or- 
ganized stakes  and  missions  Of  Zion.  We 
are  permitted  to  assemble  in  peace  and 
quiet  notwithstanding  the  terrible  con- 
ditions in  the  world.  We  have  been 
chosen  and  set  apart  by  those  who  have 
the  authority  to  call  us  to  serve.  We 
are  in  this  house  that  was  erected  many 
years  ago  by  faithful  Saints.  We 
are  here  to  worship  God  and  to  honor 
Him  and  to  be  instructed  by  Him 
through  His  faithful  servants. 


14 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

7V  fter  these  conference  meetings  are 
over,  you  brethren  will  go  back  to 
the  stakes  of  Zion  over  which  you  pre- 
side. If  we  have  sought  the  Lord  we 
shall  be  strengthened,  our  faith  will  be 
increased,  our  power  to  direct  will  be 
increased,  and  we  will  not  feel  the  weak- 
ness that  possesses  men  when  they  are 
left  alone.  Rather  we  will  feel  the 
strength  and  power  of  our  Heavenly 
Father,  for  He  helps  us. 

The  responsibility  that  comes  to  all 
of  us  when  these  honors  have  been 
bestowed  upon  us  is  tremendous.  I 
hope  that  none  of  the  members  of  the 
Church  who  have  been  called  to  pre- 
side in  its  various » departments  will 
feel  that  they  can  make  it  secondary  in 
their  lives.  You  who  are  here  today 
must  know  that  it  is  your  duty  first  of  all 
to  learn  what  the  Lord  wants  and  then 
by  the  power  and  strength  of  His  holy 
Priesthood  to  magnify  your  calling  in 
the  presence  of  your  fellows  in  such  a 
way  that  the  people  will  be  glad  to  fol- 
low you. 

This  is  a  day  of  proving  ourselves,  a 
day  of  trial.  This  is  a  day  when  men's 
hearts  are  failing  them  with  fear.  When 
the  multitudes  in  the  world  are  asking 
themselves  what  the  end  will  be.  A  few 
inspired  men  know  what  the  end  will  be. 
The  Lord  has  told  us  what  would  oc- 
cur, in  these  books  that  are  upon  this 
stand,  this  wonderful  library  that  I  hold 
in  my  hand.  He  has  given  us  the  in- 
formation that  we  need  to  adjust  our 
lives  and  to  prepare  ourselves  that  no 
matter  what  may  transpire  we  will  be 
on  the  Lord's  side  of  the  line. 

When  Moses  led  Israel  from  Egypt 
through  the  wilderness  and  into  the 
promised  land,  Amalek  attacked  Israel 
at  Rephidim.  Moses  directed  Joshua 
to  choose  fighting  men  to  protect  Israel. 
Moses,  Aaron,  and  Hur  went  to  the 
top  of  a  hill  overlooking  the  battlefield. 
While  Moses  held  the  rod  of  God  above 
his  head,  Israel  prevailed,  but  when  he 
let  his  hands  down  because  of  weak- 
ness, Amalek  prevailed.  A  stone  seat 
was  provided  and  Aaron  and  Hur 
held  up  his  hands  in  order  that  the 
blessings  of  God  could  flow  to  Israel 
that  their  warriors  might  prevail  and 


First  Day 

the  battle  was  won.  The  power  of  God 
was  upon  Moses  and  remained  with  him 
until  he  had  finished  his  work.  When  he 
had  the  support  of  his  people  they  too 
were  blessed,  and  so  it  has  been  with 
every  servant  of  the  Lord  who  has 
presided  over  Israel. 

How  grateful  we  must  all  be  to  see 
the  President  of  the  Church  stand  here 
this  morning,  in  spite  of  physical  in- 
firmities and  advancing  years,  and  yet 
with  that  testimony  burning  in  his  heart 
that  God  gave  to  him  when  he  was  a 
youth.  He  has  here  testified  to  us  of  the 
power  of  God  which  has  been  made 
manifest  unto  him.  President  Grant  has 
been  an  example  of  devotion  and  a 
tower  of  strength  in  this  Church.  He 
has  been  a  friend-maker  among  the  gen- 
tiles of  the  world  because  the  Lord  has 
made  him  so. 

We  sit  here  this  morning  under  the 
inspiration  of  his  voice,  and  just  as  long 
as  the  Lord  holds  up  his  hands,  just  as 
long  as  he  presides  over  this  Church, 
it  matters  not  how  many  years  it  will 
be,  our  Heavenly  Father  will  give  him 
strength,  power,  wisdom,  judgment, 
and  inspiration  to  talk  to  Israel  as  they 
need  to  be  talked  to.  We,  in  following 
his  leadership,  must  be  like  Aaron  and 
Hur  of  ancient  times;  we  must  uphold 
his  hands,  that  through  him  the  Lord 
will  let  the  blessings  of  heaven  descend 
on  us  and  this  people. 

His  counselors  will  likewise  be 
blessed,  and  they  will  be  united  together 
and  they  will  carry  on,  and  when  they 
are  united  in  the  things  pertaining  to 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  will  be 
our  leaders  and  our  directors,  and  we 
will  do  well  to  listen  to  their  voices  and 
follow  the  example  that  they  set  us  in 
all  righteousness. 

This  morning  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  your  associate  members  of  the 
Church  would  like  to  be  here.  Yet  out 
of  our  entire  Church  membership  we 
are  permitted  to  be  present.  But 
with  this  group  rests  the  leadership  of 
the  Church,  and  if  we  wait  upon  the 
Lord  as  we  should,  if  we  have  come  here 
with  the  spirit  of  worship,  if  we  have 
set  aside  our  personal  affairs  to  make 
first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  right- 


ELDER  GEORGE  ALBERT  SMITH 


15 


eousness,  we  will  go  from  here  renewed 
in  strength  and  power;  the  assurance 
will  increase  in  us  that  this  is  God's 
work,  and  we  will  have  strength  in  the 
communities  in  which  we  reside  and 
preside,  to  say,  "This  is  the  way  of  the 
Lord;  walk  in  it,"  and  the  people  will 
know  by  the  spirit  that  we  possess  that 
we  are  really  His  leaders. 

Brethren,  it  is  no  trifling  affair.  You 
cannot  neglect  the  business  of  the 
Church,  as  the  presiding  officers  of  the 
stakes  of  Zion,  and  expect  the  Lord  to 
carry  on.  He  desires  to  do  it  through 
you.  You  have  been  given  divine  au- 
thority. It  comes  through  only  one 
source,  and  that  is  our  Heavenly 
Father.  He  will  expect  each  of  us 
wherever  we  go,  when  this  conference 
is  completed,  to  hold  the  banner  of 
righteousness  aloft  and  teach  by  exam- 
ple as  well  as  precept  those  to  whom 
we  minister,  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord. 

The  world  is  in  a  serious  condition, 
but  we  need  have  no  fear  if  we  do  what 
the  Lord  has  asked  us  to  do.  This  is 
His  world.  All  men  and  women  are 
subject  to  Him.  All  the  powers  of  evil 
will  be  controlled  for  the  sake  of  His 
people,  if  they  will  honor  Him  and  keep 
His  commandments;  He  has  told  us  that 
in  the  latter  days  conditions  would  be 
such  that  people  will  be  in  fear  and 
doubt.  He  has  told  us  that  the  time 
would  come  when  the  elements  would 
not  only  threaten  but  also  that  men 
would  hate  one  another  and  seek  to 
destroy  one  another  and  that  the  wick- 
ed should  slay  the  wicked.  When  we 
see  the  condition  that  is  in  the  world 
today,  how  grateful  we  ought  to  be  that 
our  forebears  were  called  from  the 
midst  of  the  nations  and  guided  into 
the  gathering  place  of  the  Saints  in  the 
tops  of  these  everlasting  hills.  We 
should  prepare  to  send  forth  sons  and 
daughters,  keeping  the  commandments 
of  God,  to  preside  in  the  various  de- 
partments of  the  Church,  not  only  in 
the  organized  stakes,  but  as  mission- 
aries in  many  parts  of  the  world  where 
stakes  are  not  yet  organized. 

The  missionaries  of  this  Church 
should  be  as  a  light  set  upon  a  hill 
wherever  they  go,  and  they  will  be  if 


they  keep  the  commandments  of  the 
Lord.  They  will  be  able  to  teach  the 
truth  if  they  are  worthy  of  the  com- 
panionship of  that  sweet  spirit  that 
comes  from  our  Heavenly  Father. 

Upon  us  who  remain  at  home,  those 
that  are  holding  positions  among  the 
organized  stakes  of  Zion,  who  have 
been  called  to  teach  and  guide  not  only 
by  precept  but  by  example,  upon  us 
devolves  a  responsibility  that  our  Heav- 
enly Father  will  hold  us  accountable 
for,  and  if  we  will  but  do  our  best,  He 
will  bless  us  in  it. 

^To  matter  whether  the  clouds  may 
'  gather,  no  matter  how  the  war 
drums  may  beat,  no  matter  what  con- 
ditions may  arise  in  the  world,  here  in 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  wherever  we  are  honoring 
and  keeping  the  commandments  of  God, 
there  will  be  protection  from  the  pow- 
ers of  evil,  and  men  and  women  will 
be  permitted  to  live  upon  the  earth 
until  their  lives  are  finished  in  honor 
and  glory  if  they  will  keep  the  com- 
mandments  of  our  Heavenly  Father. 

When  you  return  home  from  this 
conference,  remember  the  things  that 
have  been  said  here  by  those  who  have 
been  called  to  speak.  Remember  the 
testimonies  of  truth  that  have  been 
borne  in  your  hearing,  and  in  addition, 
know  that  God  has  given  to  you  a  great 
library  of  scripture  and  instruction  for 
your  guidance  that  has  accumulated 
during  the  ages  and  He  will  add  to  it 
in  the  future  just  as  rapidly  as  we 
fulfill  His  desires  in  the  things  that  are 
already  revealed. 

God  lives.  Jesus  is  the  Christ.  The 
Church  of  the  Lamb  of  God  is  upon  the 
earth.  The  power  of  the  holy  Priest- 
hood is  here,  and  no  evil  power  can 
stay  its  progress.  It  remains  for  us 
to  demonstrate  whether  or  not  we  will 
do  our  part  and  merit  exaltation. 

As  I  stand  here  in  humility  before 
you,  I  realize  the  blessings  that  the 
Lord  has  bestowed  upon  me,  one  of  the 
weakest  of  your  number,  frail  in  phys- 
ical strength.  When  I  recall  the  many 
blessings  that  have  come  to  me  through 
my  forebears  who  have  been  faithful, 
I  realize  what  they  are  expecting  of 


16  GENERAL  C 

Saturday,  April  4 

me,  honored  as  I  have  been,  I  feel  my 
limitations  and  the  necessity  of  drawing 
near  to  the  Lord,  I  desire  the  fellowship 
of  my  brethren  and  sisters  in  this 
Church. 

There  are  none  of  us  but  will 
make  mistakes,  not  any  of  us  but  will 
fail  to  interpret  some  things  properly; 
but  if  we  will  do  our  best,  if  we 
determine  in  ourselves  to  be  what 
God  would  have  us  to  be,  if  we 
will  set  our  own  homes  in  order,  and 
then  go  forth  to  set  in  order  the  depart- 
ments of  the  Church  in  which  we  are 
called  to  minister,  our  Heavenly  Father 
will  be  with  us  to  guard  us,  and  the 
strength  that  we  need  will  be  with  us, 
but  without  His  guidance  we  will  not 
succeed. 

I  pray  that  the  Spirit  that  directs 
those  who  keep  the  commandments 
of  our  Heavenly  Father  may  be 
with  us  always,  that  we  may  have 
power  to  understand,  that  we  may  have 
the  strength  to  resist  the  temptations  of 
the  adversary,  for  we  will  all  be  tempt- 
ed, that  we  may  be  able  whatever  the 
circumstances  may  be  to  place  our  all 
upon  the  altar,  as  many  of  our  fore- 
bears have  done,  and  say  to  our  Heav- 
enly Father,  "Whithersoever  thou  de- 
sirest  me  to  go,  I  will  go." 

In  the  stakes  and  wards  in  this 
Church,  you  men  must  be  towers  of 
strength  among  the  people  all  the  time. 
You  must  be  what  God  intended  you 
to  be  when  He  gave  you  the  authority 
that  has  been  conferred  upon  you.  You 
must  be  willing  to  make  the  sacrifices; 
and  when  I  say  you,  I  mean  all  of  us. 
That  will  be  required  of  us  in  order 
that  we  may  be  worthy  to  hold  our 
places  among  the  children  of  men,  and 
if  we  will  do  that,  men  and  women 
everywhere  seeing  our  good  works  will 
be  constrained  to  glorify  the  name  of 
our  Heavenly  Father.  It  is  not  the  po- 
sition that  we  occupy  that  gives  us 
power;  it  is  righteousness  that  gives  us 
power;  it  is  keeping  the  commandments 
of  God  that  will  give  us  understanding. 
Having  been  set  apart  for  some  par- 
ticular duty,  will  not  be  sufficient;  but 
having  been  set  apart,  if  we  are  worthy, 
the  Spirit  of  God  will  dwell  in  us,  and 
we  will  be  among  the  people  as  a  light 


First  Day 

to  guide  their  footsteps,  and  they  will 
know  that  the  leadership  that  is  with  us 
is  of  our  Heavenly  Father. 

T  desire  with  all  my  heart  to  be  worthy 
of  the  position  to  which  I  have  been 
called.  I  desire  to  be  worthy  of  the 
companionship  of  my  associates  in  the 
leadership  of  the  Church.  I  here  desire 
to  thank  my  brethren,  President  Grant 
and  his  counselors,  the  members  of  the 
Quorum  of  the  Twelve,  the  First  Coun- 
cil of  the  Seventy,  the  Presiding  Bish- 
opric, and  those  who  have  been  called  to 
associate  with  these  men.  In  these  men  I 
have  seen  the  power  of  God  made  mani- 
fest, and  I  thank  them  for  the  privilege  I 
have  had  of  working  with  them — not  to 
work  out  my  own  desires  and  ambitions, 
but  to  unite  with  them  in  carrying  forth 
the  program  that  God  has  given  to  the 
children  of  men,  without  which  this 
world  is  condemned  already.  If  this 
body  of  men  cannot  rise  to  the  maj- 
esty of  the  power  that  God  has  given 
to  them  and  build  upon  the  foundation 
of  faith  and  righteousness,  there  is  little 
hope  for  the  world;  but  if  we  do  our 
part,  if  we  will  keep  the  commandments 
of  God,  if  we  will  love  one  another 
and  observe  the  commandment  of  the 
Savior  that  we  love  our  neighbor  as 
ourself,  then  will  we  have  strength,  and 
power,  and  wisdom,  and  might,  among 
the  children  of  men,  and  the  people  of 
the  world  will  love  us,  and  they  will 
not  hate  us  because  they  will  see  in  us 
the  riches  of  righteousness  and  the 
blessings  which  come  from  the  power 
of  our  Heavenly  Father. 

I  know  that  God  lives.  I  know  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ.  I  know  that  Joseph 
Smith  was  a  prophet  of  the  living  God, 
and  that  the  Church  with  which  we 
are  identified,  was  organized  through 
him  by  our  Heavenly  Father  and  His 
Beloved  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  I  know 
these  things,  and  there  is  no  other  way 
under  heaven  whereby  men  may  gain 
a  place  in  the  celestial  kingdom  but 
through  the  plan  that  God  has  given  the 
children  of  men,  of  which  we  are  made 
partakers.  I  know  this  as  I  know  that  I 
live,  and  knowing  it,  I  desire  that  we 
may  prove  worthy.  With  all  my  heart 
I  pray  that  we  may  be  content  to  live  in 


ELDER  MARION  G.  ROMNEY 


17 


the  lowly  brackets  of  life;  not  with  all 
the  riches  that  the  world  desires  and 
clamors  after,  but  that  there  may  be  in 
our  lives  a  richness  of  love  and  hope  and 
charity  wherever  we  go. 

I  pray  that  our  homes  may  be  the 
abiding  place  of  prayer,  and  that  our 
sons  and  daughters  may  be  worthy  ex- 
emplars of  the  cause  and  represent  us 
favorably  wherever  they  may  go. 

Brethren,  let  us  not  think  that  this 
Church  will  go  on  just  as  well  if  we 
fail.  The  Church  as  a  whole  will,  but 
I  want  to  say  to  you  that  the  depart- 
ment we  are  expected  to  direct  will  not 
go  forward  as  long,  as  we  stand  in  the 
way,  so  let  us  adjust  ourselves  if 
necessary.  Let  us  live  so  that  every 
night  when  we  kneel  to  pray  and  every 
morning  when  we  bow  before  the  Lord 
in  thanksgiving,  there  will  be  in  us  the 
power  to  open  the  heavens  so  that  God 
will  hear  and  answer  our  prayers  that 
we  will  know  that  we  are  approved  of 
Him.  We  can  do  that,  brethren,  better 
than  we  have  ever  done  before.  If 
there  ever  was  a  time  when  it  was 
needed,  it  is  this  particular  period  in 
which  we  are  living. 

I  humbly  pray  that  God  may  give  us 
power  and  strength  to  resist  evil  and 
temptation  and  to  put  aside  from  us  the 
selfish  motives  that  characterize  so 
many  of  His  sons  and  daughters,  that 
we  may  let  our  light  so  shine  every  day 


that  others  observing  our  good  works 
will  see  in  us  righteous  leaders  that  they 
will  be  glad  to  follow.  I  pray  that  these 
men  who  preside  over  us,  this  Presi- 
dency, may  have  the  joy  of  always 
being  united  in  their  leadership  and  that 
we  may  be  united  in  our  membership 
when  they  shall  speak  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  to  the  Church. 

Again  I  say  I  know  that  this  is  God's 
work.  I  may  not  be  with  you  very  long, 
my  brethren.  I  have  passed  the  years 
of  some  of  my  forebears  a  long  way, 
and  I  am  amazed  that  I  have  been  per- 
mitted to  stand  among  you  as  long  as 
I  have  with  my  many  illnesses,  but  I 
desire  that  as  long  as  I  live  that  I  may 
enjoy  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  spirit  of 
fellowship,  and  brotherly  love.  When 
I  think  of  your  homes,  I  would  like  to 
know  that  there  is  love  in  every  heart 
for  one  another;  then  I  will  know  that 
there  will  be  love  in  God's  heart  for 
us,  and  there  will  be  an  assurance  that 
He  will  bless  us  as  we  need  blessing. 

That  this  conference  may  be  notable 
for  the  spirit  that  will  be  distilled  upon 
us,  even  as  the  dews  from  heaven,  and 
when  it  is  over  that  we  may  go  to  our 
various  departments  renewed  and  in- 
vigorated, and  determined  more  than 
ever  to  be  worthy  of  the  high  calling 
that  has  been  made  of  us  and  conferred 
upon  us,  I  humbly  ask  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  Amen. 


ELDER  MARION  G.  ROMNEY 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


I desire  to  call  your  attention  to 
the  principle  of  loyalty,  loyalty 
to  the  truth  and  loyalty  to  the 
men  whom  God  has  chosen  to  lead 
the  cause  of  truth.  I  speak  of  "the 
truth"  and  these  "men"  jointly,  be- 
cause it  is  impossible  fully  to  accept 
the  one  and  partly  reject  the  other. 

I  raise  my  voice  on  this  matter  to 
warn  and  counsel  you  to  be  on  your 
guard  against  criticism.  I  have  heard 
some  myself  and  have  been  told 
about  more.  It  comes,  in  part,  from 
those  who  hold,  or  have  held,  promi- 


nent positions.  Ostensibly,  they  are 
in  good  standing  in  the  Church.  In 
expressing  their  feelings,  they  fre- 
quently say,  "We  are  members  of 
the  Church,  too,  you  know,  and  our 
feelings  should  be  considered." 

They  assume  that  one  can  be  in 
full  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel,  enjoy  full  fellowship  in  the 
Church,  and  at  the  same  time  be  out 
of  harmony  with  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  and  the  counsel  and  direc- 
tions they  give.  Such  a  position  is 
wholly   inconsistent,    because  the 


18 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

guidance  of  this  Church  comes,  not 
alone  from  the  written  word,  but  also 
from  continuous  revelation,  and  the 
Lord  gives  that  revelation  to  the 
Church  through  His  chosen  leaders 
and  none  else.  It  follows,  therefore, 
that  those  who  profess  to  accept  the 
gospel  and  who  at  the  same  time 
criticize  and  refuse  to  follow  the 
counsel  of  the  leaders,  are  assuming 
an  indefensible  position. 

Such  a  spirit  leads  to  apostasy. 
It  is  not  new.  It  was  prevalent  in  the 
days  of  Jesus.  Some  who  boasted 
of  being  Abraham's  children,  said 
of  the  Son  of  God:    "Behold  a  man 

?luttonous,  and  a  winebibber,  a 
riend  of  publicans  and  sinners."- 
( Matt.  11:19)  But  those  who  stood 
by  Him  enjoying  the  spirit  of  truth 
knew  Him,  as  did  Peter,  who  said 
"Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God." 

In  the  days  of  the  Prophet  Joseph, 
there  was  criticism  against  him  and 
the  counsel  he  gave.  Some  of  the 
leading  brethren  of  the  Church 
charged  him  with  being  a  fallen 
prophet.  They  did  not  deny  the 
gospel,  but  they  contended  that  the 
Prophet  had  fallen. 

Those  were  critical  times  for  the 
Church.  They  have  now  long  since 
passed  into  history,  but  the  records 
remain.  The  issues  are  now  clear. 
Joseph  Smith  was  the  Lord's 
prophet,  and  so  continued,  notwith- 
standing all  the  abuse  directed  at 
him.  He  now  sits  enthroned  in 
yonder  heavens,  and  those  who  criti- 
cized him  apostatized  and  left  the 
Church.  Thomas  B.  Marsh,  who 
left  the  Church  in  1839  because  he 
became  jealous  of  the  Prophet,  found 
his  way  in  1857  to  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  in  addressing  the  Saints,  said: 

If  there  are  any  among  this  people  who 
should  ever  apostatize  and  do  as  I  have 
done,  prepare  your  backs  for  a  good  whip- 
ping if  you  are  such  as  the  Lord  loves. 
But  if  you  will  take  my  advice,  you  will 
stand  by  the  authorities. 


First  Dag 

As  we  look  back  upon  these  im- 
portant events,  it  seems  that  the 
issues  were  always  so  clearly  drawn 
that  anyone  could  have  seen  the 
truth.  And  yet,  there  seem  always 
to  have  been  great  intellects  on  the 
side  of  error.  This  is  one  of  life's 
tragedies.  Surely  there  can  be 
nothing  of  more  importance  than  to 
be  always  and  everlastingly  on  the 
side  with  truth  as  we  meet  the  com- 
plex problems  of  our  lives.  It  is 
comforting  to  know  that  that  is  where 
we  may  be  if  we  will  but  hearken  to 
the  spirit  of  truth.  For  the  Lord  has 
said  that  "the  Spirit  giveth  light  to 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world; 
and  the  Spirit  enlighteneth  every  man 
through  the  world,  that  hearkeneth 
to  the  voice  of  the  Spirit."  (D.  &  C. 
84:46)  That  this  is  no  idle  promise 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  on  nearly 
all  occasions  there  have  stood  with 
God's  spokesmen  those  who  were 
loyal  to  the  truth  and  to  the  men 
whom  God  had  chosen  to  lead  the 
cause  of  truth.  At  the  time  of  the 
attack  on  the  Prophet  in  Kirtland, 
Brigham  Young  was  present,  and 
when  the  criticism  was  expressed  he 
arose  and  in  plain  and  forceful  lan- 
guage said  that  Joseph  was  a  Prophet 
and  he  knew  it,  "and  that  they  might 
rail  and  slander  him  as  much  as  they 
pleased,  they  could  but  destroy  their 
own  authority  and  cut  the  thread 
that  bound  them  to  the  Prophet  of 
God  and  sink  themselves  to  hell." 
Later  he  said: 

Some  of  the  leading  men  at  Kirtland  were 
much  opposed  to  the  Prophet  meddling  with 
temporal  affairs,  thinking  that  his  duty 
embraced  spiritual  things  alone  and  that 
the  people  should  be  left  to  attend  to  their 
temporal  affairs  without  any  interference 
whatever  from  prophets  and  apostles.  In 
a  public  meeting,  I  said:  "Ye  elders  of 
Israel:  Now,  will  some  of  you  draw  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  spiritual 
and  temporal  within  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
so  that  I  may  understand  it!"  Not  one  of 
them  could  do  it.  When  I  saw  a  man 
standing  in  the  path  before  the  Prophet, 


ELDER  MARION  G.  ROMNEY 


19 


I  felt  like  hurling  hftn  out  of  the  way  and 
branding  him  as  a  fool. 

Here  was  loyalty,  loyalty  both  to 
the  truth  and  to  the  man  whom  God 
had  called  to  represent  it. 

Why  was  it  that  the  vision  of  Brig- 
ham  Young  was  clear  and  that  of 
Thomas  B.  Marsh  was  cloudy;  that 
Brigham  Young  remained  true  to  the 
Prophet,  and  that  Thomas  B.  Marsh 
criticized  him?  It  was  because  Brig- 
ham  Young  always  hearkened  to  the 
spirit  of  truth,  and  Thomas  B.  Marsh 
did  not. 

T  AST  October,  I  attended  an  out- 
lying  stake's  conference.  A 
number  of  the  speakers  had  just 
attended  for  the  first  time  a  general 
conference.  Their  reports  were  soul 
stirring.  One  bishop  wished  that 
every  member  of  his  ward  might 
attend  just  one  conference  in  the 
tabernacle.  Another,  when  he  stood 
with  the  vast  congregation  for  the 
first  time,  was  so  moved  that  tears 
ran  down  his  cheeks,  and  his  voice 
so  choked  that  he  could  not  join  in 
the  singing.  A  third  was  impressed 
with  President  Grant's  closing  re- 
marks. He  said  as  he  finished  his 
talk:  "Three  times  the  President 
said  'I  bless  you,  I  bless  you,  I  bless 
you. 

In  another  outlying  stake,  an  ex- 
bishop  said  to  me  that  the  confer- 
ence was  nothing  but  a  political  con- 
vention. In  another  a  man  said  that 
whether  he  would  follow  the  counsel 
of  the  leaders  depended  upon  what 
subject  they  discussed. 

How  are  these  different  responses 
accounted  for?  I  will  tell  you.  The 
members  of  the  one  group  were  ob- 
serving and  keeping  the  command- 
ments of  God,  and  the  others  were 
not;  one  group  was  walking  in  the 
light  of  truth,  and  the  other  was  in 
the  dark;  one  group  enjoyed  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord,  and  the  others  did 
not. 


If  we  are  to  be  oh  the  side  of  truth, 
we  must  have  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 
To  the  obtaining  of  that  spirit,  prayer 
is  an  indispensable  prerequisite. 
Praying  will  keep  one's  vision  clear 
on  this  question  of  loyalty  as  on  all 
other  questions.  By  praying  I  do 
not  mean,  however,  just  saying 
prayers.  Prayers  may  be  said  in  a 
perfunctory  manner.  Access  to  the 
Spirit  of  God,  which  is  a  directing 
power,  cannot  be  so  obtained.  The 
divine  injunction  to  pray  is  not  to  be 
satisfied  in  a  casual  manner  nor  by 
an  effort  to  obtain  divine  approval  of 
a  predetermined  course.  A  firm  re- 
solve to  comply  with  the  will  of  God 
must  accompany  the  petition  for 
knowledge  as  to  what  His  will  is. 
When  one  brings  himself  to  the  po- 
sition that  he  will  pursue  the  truth 
wherever  it  may  lead,  even  though 
it  may  require  a  reversal  of  his 
former  position,  he  can,  without 
hypocrisy,  go  before  the  Lord  in 
prayer.  Then,  when  he  prays  with 
all  the  energy  of  his  soul,  he  is  en- 
titled to  and  he  will  receive  guidance. 
The  mind  and  will  of  the  Lord  as 
to  the  course  he  should  take  will  be 
made  known  unto  him. 

I  assure  you,  however,  that  the 
spirit  of  the  Lord  will  never  direct 
a  person  to  take  a  position  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  counsel  of  the  Presi- 
dency of  His  Church.  Such  could 
not  be,  and  I'll  tell  you  why.  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  "truth."  The 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith  says  that 
"The  glory  of  God  is  intelligence, 
or,  in  other  words,  light  and  truth." 

The  Presidency,  in  directing  the 
Church  and  its  affairs  and  in  coun- 
seling the  people,  do  so  under  the 
directing  power  of  this  "light  and 
truth."  When  a  man  and  the  Presi- 
dency are  both  directed  on  the  same 
subject  by  "light  and  truth,"  there 
can  be  no  conflict.  And  so,  my 
brethren,  all  who  are  out  of  harmony 
in  any  degree  with  the  Presidency 


20 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

have  need  to  repent  and  to  seek  the 
Lord  for  forgiveness  and  to  put 
themselves  in  full  harmony. 

In  response  to  a  contention  that 
to  follow  such  a  course  is  tantamount 
to  surrendering  one's  "moral 
agency,"  suppose  a  person  were  in  a 
forest  with  his  vision  limited  by  the 
denseness  of  the  growth  about  him. 
Would  he  be  surrendering  his 
agency  in  following  the  directions 
of  one  who  stands  on  a  lookout 
tower,  commanding  an  unobstructed 
view?  To  me,  our  leaders  are  true 
watchmen  on  the  towers  of  Zion, 
and  those  who  follow  their  counsel 
are  exercising  their  agency  just  as 
freely  as  would  be  the  man  in  the 
forest.  For  I  accept  as  a  fact,  with- 
out any  reservation,  that  this  Church 
is  headed  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  that  He,  through  the  men  whom 
he  chooses  and  appoints  to  lead  His 
people,  gives  it  active  direction.  I 


First  Dag 

believe  that  He  communicates  to 
them  His  will,  and  that  they,  en- 
joying His  spirit,  counsel  us. 

The  Savior  Himself  gave  us  the 
great  example  on  this  point.  As  He 
labored  and  suffered  under  the 
weight  of  the  sins  of  this  world  in 
the  accomplishment  of  the  great 
atonement,  He  cried  out  in  the  agony 
of  His  soul,  "O  my  Father,  if  it  be 
possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me: 
Nevertheless  not  as  I  will,  but  as 
thou  wilt."  (Matt.  26:39)  And  so 
saying,  He  subjected  Himself  to  the 
will  of  His  Father  in  the  consumma- 
tion of  His  supreme  mission.  Who 
will  say  that  in  so  doing  He  sur- 
rendered His  free  agency? 

That  we  may  all  have  the  vision 
and  the  courage  to  be  loyal  to  the 
truth  and  loyal  to  the  men  whom 
God  has  chosen  to  lead  in  the  cause 
of  truth,  I  humbly  pray,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


ELDER  THOMAS  E.  McKAY 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


IT  is  a  very  great  privilege  for  me  to 
be  associated  with  such  fine,  out- 
standing men  as  are  here  present, 
and  I  express  my  thanks  humbly  and 
before  you  brethren,  to  my  Father  in 
heaven  for  this  privilege.  I  am  very 
thankful  also  to  be  able  to  report  the 
conditions  in  the  missions  included  in 
the  European  group  as  very  favorable. 
All  those  missions  are  functioning,  and 
most  of  them  are  making  progress. 
Some  of  them  are  handicapped  in  the 
holding  of  their  meetings;  especially  has 
that  been  the  case  during  this  past 
winter  because  of  the  lack  of  fuel  and 
light.  They  are  continuing,  however, 
to  hold  all  meetings,  including  their 
district  conferences,  but  they  must  all 
be  held  during  the  daytime.  Generally 
the  sacrament  meetings  convene  imme- 
diately following  the  Sunday  school, 
and  the  Priesthood,  Relief  Society,  and 
M.  I.  A.  gatherings  are  held  at  the 
same  time. 


We  continue  to  get  letters;  but,  of 
course,  as  you  know,  they  are  all  cen- 
sored. A  report  just  received  yester- 
day from  the  Danish  Mission  was  sent 
by  regular  mail  on  the  eleventh  of  Oc- 
tober. It  had  been  censored  by  both 
the  German  and  the  English  author- 
ities, but  it  came  through  in  its  original 
form.  On  one  end  of  the  envelope  was 
stamped  Geoffnet,  the  German  word 
for  opened,  and  on  the  other  end 
Opened  by  Examiner,  the  words  used 
by  the  English  censor. 

In  that  report  it  stated  that  thirteen 
members  had  been  baptized  for  the 
ten  months  ending  October  27,  1941. 

The  letters  and  reports  from  the 
British,  South  African,  Swedish,  and 
Swiss  Missions  and  the  French,  Swiss, 
and  Syrian  Districts  come  through  quite 
regularly,  while  those  from  the  other 
missions  since  the  United  States  entered 
the  war  are  very  irregular;  some  of  my 
letters  are  being  returned,  with  the 


\ 


ELDER  THOMAS  E.  McKAY 


21 


words  "Service  Suspended.  Return 
to  Sender,"  stamped  on  them. 

The  yearly  report  from  the  Swedish 
Mission  shows  an  increase  of  twenty- 
two  percent  in  tithing  over  last  year, 
and  twenty  baptisms. 

The  British  Mission  also  is  doing  ex- 
ceptionally well.  They  have  home 
missionaries.  It  is  their  aim  to  have 
such  missionaries  in  every  branch.  They 
report  for  the  year  1941  sixty  baptisms 
and  a  very  substantial  increase  in  tithes 
and  fast  offerings.  From  a  letter  re- 
ceived day  before  yesterday,  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph  is  taken: 

I  regret  to  inform  you  that  we  have  been 
advised  by  the  Air  Ministry  in  London  that 
Pilot  Officer  Hugh  Card  Brown  is  posted 
as  missing.  A  telegram,  we  learn  from  the 
same  source,  has  been  sent  to  his  parents. 
The  news  is  a  very  great  shock  to  us.  We 
saw  him  two  days  ago,  smiling  and  bright, 
full  of  life  and  joy.  We  spent  an  evening 
with  him  in  town.  He  was  in  London  for 
a  couple  of  days  to  undergo  medical  exami- 
nation, which  he  told  us  was  A-l.  We  all 
feel  very  keenly  the  sad  news.  We  are 
fasting  today  with  hope  and  prayer  that  he 
is  safe.  We  are  awaiting  further  news  from 
the  Air  Ministry  in  London.  This  infor- 
mation was  received  last  night,  that  is, 
March  17,  1942. 

I  am  sure  that  hundreds  of  us  here 
have  also  united  our  prayers  with  mem- 
bers of  the  British  Mission  that  our 
young  pilot  officer,  Brother  Hugh  Card 
Brown,  is  still  safe. 

Many  families  are  afflicted  as  are 
President  Hugh  B.  Brown  and  his  fam- 
ily, and  thousands  of  others,  I  fear,  will 
be  before  this  war  is  ended.  As  you 
know,  President  Brown  and  his  good 
wife,  Sister  Zina  Card  Brown,  were 
presiding  over  the  British  Mission  when 
war  was  declared;  they  evacuated  all 
missionaries  in  the  British  Mission  at 
that  time. 

In  speaking  of  our  soldiers  may  I 
presume  to  recommend  that  it  be  a 
Priesthood  project  to  write  at  least  once 
a  month  to  the  members  of  the  Priest- 


hood quorums  who  are  in  the  service. 
The  personal  welfare  committee,  pre- 
sided over  by  the  president  of  the  quo- 
rum, should  follow  this  up.  We  cannot 
estimate  the  good  that  will  come  from 
these  letters,  especially  to  members  of 
the  quorum,  who  have  been,  perchance, 
inactive  at  home.  There  are  many  very 
interesting  events  that  can  be  told  that 
will  be  very  beneficial  to  these  mem- 
bers of  the  quorum.  May  I  suggest  also 
that  others  be  instructed  to  write? 
These  soldiers  should  receive  a  letter 
weekly  at  least.  I  am  sure,  and  I  testify, 
good  will  come  from  this  method  if  it 
is  followed  up. 

I  desire  also  to  express  before  sitting 
down  my  great  appreciation  for  the  op- 
portunity I  have  had  of  visiting  so 
many  of  the  stakes  and  one  mission.  I 
did  enjoy  my  visit  to  the  Eastern  States 
Mission.  President  Gustave  A.  Iverson 
and  his  good  wife  are  doing  a  splendid 
work,  working  too  hard,  but  they  cer- 
tainly have  the  love  and  respect  of  all 
the  missionaries.  Two  groups  there 
are  doing  especially  good  work  with 
their  singing:  The  Mormon  Mission- 
ary Male  Quartet  of  Philadelphia,  and 
also  the  Ensign  Chorus,  comprised  of 
mixed  voices.  They  seem  to  have  no 
difficulty  in  getting  permission  to  sing 
over  the  radio,  and  at  the  same  time 
announce  their  conferences  and  other 
meetings. 

I  appreciate  also  the  opportunity  I 
have  had  of  meeting  and  getting  better 
acquainted  with  you  presidents  of 
stakes.  My  faith  in  the  inspiration  of 
the  leaders  of  the  Church  has  been 
encouraged  and  strengthened  since 
meeting  you  men.  I  testify  that  these 
men — these  leaders — are  called  of  God 
and  they  are  inspired  in  their  leadership. 
May  God  continue  to  bless  them,  and 
bless  you,  and  bless  our  boys  in  the 
service,  and  also  our  members  in  the 
war-torn  countries,  I  pray  earnestly  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


As  a  closing  number,  the  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "Redeemer 
Of  Israel"  (Hymn  Book,  page  212). 

Elder  Arnold  D.  Miller,  President  of  the  North  Davis  Stake,  offered 
the  closing  prayer. 

Conference  adjourned  until  2  p.  m. 


22 

Saturday.  April  4 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 


FIRST  DAY 


AFTERNOON  MEETING 

The  second  session  of  the  Conference  was  held  in  the  Assembly 
Hall  Saturday  afternoon,  April  4,  at  2  o'clock. 

President  Heber  J.  Grant  was  present  and  presided.  President  J. 
Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency,  conducted 
the  meeting. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "Come,  Come,  Ye  Saints"  ( Hymn 
Book,  page  58). 

Elder  David  Smith,  President  of  the  North  Idaho  Falls  Stake,  offered 
the  opening  prayer. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "Now  Let  Us  Rejoice"  (Hymn 
Book,  page  198). 

ELDER  GEORGE  F.  RICHARDS 

Of  the  Council  o/  the  Twelve  Apostles 


Before  the  Savior  took  leave  of  His 
disciples  in  Jerusalem  He  prom- 
ised them  that  He  would  send  the 
Holy  Ghost  after  He  had  gone.  That 
promise  was  fulfilled,  as  you  know.  The 
brethren  and  people  had  a  wonderful 
pentecost. 

The  first  temple  built  in  this  gospel 
dispensation  was  dedicated  on  the  2/th 
of  March,  1836,  in  Kirtland,  Ohio.  The 
Sunday  following,  on  the  3rd  of  April, 
while  the  Prophet  Joseph  and  Oliver 
Cowdery  were  in  the  temple  they  had 
a  wonderful  manifestation.  The  Lord 
appeared  to  them;  the  veil  was  taken 
from  their  eyes;  they  saw  Him  and 
heard  Him.  Among  other  things,  He 
accepted  of  the  dedication  of  that  house 
and  the  sacrifices  made  by  the  people 
who  in  their  poverty  had  in  a  very  short 
time  erected  the  building  and  had  it 
ready  for  dedication. 

After  this  vision  closed,  Moses  the 
prophet  appeared  to  Joseph  and  Oliver, 
and  conferred  upon  them  the  keys  of 
the  gathering  of  scattered  Israel  from 
the  four  quarters  of  the  earth,  and  the 
return  of  the  lost  tribes  from  the  north. 

And  when  this  vision  closed,  Elias, 
who  lived  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  ap- 
peared and  conferred  upon  them  the 
keys  of  the  Abrahamic  dispensation. 


saying  that  "in  us  and  our  seed  will  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 

And  then  appeared  Elijah,  the  proph- 
et, who  said  he  had  come  in  fulfilment 
of  the  prediction  of  Malachi,  saying 
that  before  the  great  and  dreadful  day 
of  the  Lord  should  come  He  would  send 
Elijah  the  prophet  to  turn  the  hearts 
of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the 
hearts  of  the  children  to  the  fathers,  lest 
the  whole  world  be  smitten  with  a 
curse.  Said  he:  "Therefore  I  commit 
unto  you  these  keys,  and  by  this  ye  may 
know  that  the  great  and  dreadful  day 
of  the  Lord  is  nigh,  even  at  your  doors.  ' 

This  was  a  wonderful  pentecostal 
occasion  in  this  dispensation. 

This  conference  is  peculiar,  and  I 
suppose  before  it  is  over  it  will  be  a 
veritable  pentecost.  Not  such  as  those 
had  in  the  primitive  Church  and  those 
in  the  early  rise  of  this  Church,  per- 
haps. I  sincerely  hope,  however,  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  will  be  poured  out 
upon  us,  and  its  power  be  made  mani- 
fest, that  we  will  all  be  satisfied  and 
feel  that  it  has  surely  enriched  our  souls 
to  be  in  attendance  at  this  conference. 

In  the  time  allotted  to  me  to  speak  on 
this  occasion,  I  have  thought  to  speak 
upon  a  subject,  the  most  glorious  of  all 
gospel  subjects,  in  which  is  involved 


ELDER  GEORi 

one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest, 
responsibilities  that  God  has  placed 
upon  us  as  a  people,  that  of  looking 
after  our  kindred  dead. 

I  call  your  attention  to  the  statements 
•of  the  Prophet  Joseph  to  the  Saints, 
recorded  in  the  Doctrine  and  Cove- 
nants, and  known  as  the  128th  section. 
In  the  17th  verse  of  that  section  He 
speaks  of  baptism  for  the  dead,  and 
says:  "This  most  glorious  of  all  subjects 
belonging  to  the  everlasting  gospel, 
namely,  the  baptism  for  the  dead."  And 
as  you  know,  brethren,  baptism  and 
confirmation  are  necessary  to  man's 
salvation — the  door  into  the  kingdom. 
There  are  other  sacred,  saving  ordi- 
nances of  the  gospel  that  we  might  say 
are  on  a  par  in  necessity  for  men's  sal- 
vation; they  are  for  the  living  and  for 
the  dead.  We  are  not  called  upon  as 
members  of  the  Church  to  do  genealog- 
ical research  and  temple  ordinance 
work — as  we  are  called  to  go  out  into 
the  world  to  preach  the  gospel,  but  we 
have  the  responsibility  pertaining  to 
our  kindred  dead,  and  we  are  urged  to 
do  our  duty  to  them,  as  we  are  urged 
by  those  in  authority,  to  attend  to  our 
other  religious  duties — the  payment  of 
our  tithes  and  the  keeping  of  the  Word 
of  Wisdom,  the  attending  of  our  sacra- 
ment meetings,  our  quorum  meetings, 
to  our  prayers,  etc.  This  responsibility 
is  one  that  the  Lord  has  placed  upon 
us.  The  Prophet  Joseph  has  left  on  rec- 
ord this  statement  among  his  gems, 
Compendium,  page  284: 

The  greatest  responsibility  in  this  world 
which  the  Lord  has  laid  upon  us  is  to  seek 
after  our  dead. 

To  seek  after  our  dead  means  to  find 
them  out  by  genealogical  research,  to 
obtain  the  information  regarding  them 
that  will  identify  them  from  all  other 
people  bearing  the  same  name.  A  per- 
fect identification  is  to  have  the  indi- 
vidual's full  name,  also  the  day,  month, 
and  year  of  his  birth;  the  town,  county, 
and  state  where  he  was  born;  the  date 
of  his  death;  the  name  of  his  father  and 
mother;  and,  if  it  is  a  married  man,  his 
wife's  name;  and,  if  it  is  a  married 
woman,  her  husband's  name.  We  re- 
gard this   as   complete  identification. 


E  F.  RICHARDS  23 

However,  we  do  work  for  people  where 
we  are  not  able  to  obtain  complete  in- 
formation. As  you  know,  brethren, 
this  information  must  be  had  concern- 
ing our  dead  before  we  can  go  into  the 
temple  and  do  the  work  for  them.  It 
places  the  principle  of  genealogical  re- 
search, so  far  as  our  dead  are  con- 
cerned, on  a  par  in  importance  with 
the  temple  work  which  we  do  for  them. 
And  when  the  Prophet  says,  "The 
greatest  responsibility  in  this  world  that 
God  has  placed  upon  us  is  to  seek  after 
our  dead,"  it  means  the  responsibility 
of  finding  them  out  by  genealogical  re- 
search and  then  going  into  the  temple 
and  receiving  for  them  those  saving 
ordinances. 

"V^ou  will  notice  that  the  110th  sec- 
A  tion  of  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants, 
from  which  I  have  quoted,  is  an  account 
of  what  we  call  the  pentecost  of  this 
dispensation.  An  account  is  there  given 
of  Elijah's  appearing  and  committing 
to  Joseph  and  Oliver  the  keys  of  turning 
the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children, 
and  the  hearts  of  the  children  to  the 
fathers.  About  the  time  of  this  mani- 
festation— which  was  on  the  3rd  of 
April,  1836 — the  spirit  of  Elijah  seemed 
to  be  abroad  among  the  people  of  this 
world.  I  am  told  that  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain  in  that  very  year  made 
provision  for  the  keeping  of  certain  rec- 
ords throughout  the  empire.  Those 
records  were  to  have  the  information 
that  would  identify  the  various  individ- 
uals, just  such  information  as  we  need 
in  our  temple  work  and  in  our  genealog- 
ical research  work — records  of  birth,  of 
baptisms,  of  marriages,  death,  and  buri- 
als. From  about  that  time  there  has 
been  among  the  people  of  the  world  a 
spirit  and  desire  to  know  more  about 
their  ancestors  than  ever  before.  Men 
and  women  of  intelligence  and  means 
are  spending  their  means  and  time  in 
genealogical  research,  and  those  family 
histories  find  their  way  into  the  gene- 
alogical libraries  which  have  grown  up 
all  over  the  land  in  this  and  other  coun- 
tries, and  are  accessible  to  the  Latter- 
day  Saints. 

The  Genealogical  Society  of  Utah 
has  for  years  been  gathering  copies  of 


24 

Saturday,  April  4 

records  that  arc  kept  in  other  countries 
and  they  are  accessible  also  to  the  Lat- 
ter-day Saints  here  in  the  Genealogical 
Library  of  Utah  in  Salt  Lake  City. 

So  if  the  Lord  has  moved  upon  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men  and  women 
not  of  the  Church  to  gather  this  needed 
genealogical  information,  it  is  impor- 
tant that  we  do  our  part,  and  make  use 
of  that  information.  It  is  the  work  and 
the  glory  of  God  the  Eternal  Father 
to  bring  to  pass  the  immortality  and 
eternal  life  of  man,  living  and  dead. 
He  is  dependent  upon  His  living  chil- 
dren here  to  assist  Him,  and  particular- 
ly the  Latter-day  Saints. 

I  could  tell  you  an  experience  of  my 
own  family,  showing  how  the  Lord 
moves  upon  the  hearts  of  men  and 
women  in  this  Church  to  obtain  the  in- 
formation that  is  necessary  in  order  to 
do  our  duty  to  our  kindred  dead.  And 
be  it  known,  brethren,  that  not  only  has 
God  laid  this  responsibility  upon  us, 
but  it  is  one  that  is  inherited.  We  will 
have  to  account  to  Him  for  the  way  we 
have  done  or  neglected  to  do  this  im- 
portant work  in  this  Church.  We  will 
meet  our  kindred  dead,  and  we  will 
have  to  account  to  them  also. 

I  often  remark  that  we  are  indebted 
to  our  parents  for  our  life,  for  our  ex- 
istence here  upon  the  earth,  for  the 
good  name  that  we  have  inherited.  The 
Bible  tells  us  a  good  name  is  more  to  be 
desired  than  great  riches.  It  certainly 
is  a  valuable  asset  in  a  man's  life.  If 
we  are  indebted  to  our  parents  for  all 
that  we  have  inherited — good  name 
and  attributes  and  qualities  of  high  de- 
gree and  our  life  of  existence  here — we 
are  indebted  to  our  grandparents  who 
gave  us  those  parents;  to  our  great- 
grandparents  who  gave  us  grandpar- 
ents, and  so  you  may  go  back  as  far 
as  you  can  trace.  We  are  indebted 
to  our  ancestors,  not  just  our  parents, 
for  that  which  we  have  inherited,  and 
among  them  no  doubt  are  thousands  of 
God's  noble  sons  and  daughters  who 
have  lived  their  lives  here  upon  the 
earth  the  best  they  knew  how,  perhaps, 
and  served  the  Lord  according  to  their 
understanding  of  what  is  right  and 
proper  and  have  gone  to  the  other  side. 
They  will  hear^the  gospel  taught  while 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

they  are  in  the  spirit;  the  gospel  is  for 
all  men,  the  living  and  the  dead.  The 
scriptures  tell  us  that  "until  the  law  sin 
was  in  the  world;  but  sin  is  not  imputed 
when  there  is  no  law,  and  where  there 
is  no  law  there  is  no  judgment;  where 
there  is  no  judgment  there  is  no  con- 
demnation." And  in  justice  every  man 
must  be  taught  the  gospel  here  or  here- 
after and  the  Lord  has  graciously  made 
provision  to  that  end. 

"^Tow  when  we  go  on  to  the  other  side 
"  what  kind  of  accounting  will 
we  have  to  make  to  our  kindred  an- 
cestry to  whom  we  are  so  much  in- 
debted? Suppose  we  have  not  gone  out 
of  our  way  to  obtain  knowledge  of 
them — will  it  be  sufficient  justification 
on  our  part  if  we  have  to  say  that  we 
did  not  know  them?  I  am  sure  it  would 
bring  a  reproach  from  them,  and  they 
might  very  properly  say  that  "if  you 
did  not  think  enough  of  us  to  make  a 
search  to  find  us  out  and  do  this  work 
for  our  salvation  and  progress,  on 
whom  may  we  depend?  Have  you  sons 
and  daughters  or  brothers  and  sisters 
who  are  going  to  look  after  us?  Where 
are  our  hopes?  How  long  will  we  have 
to  be  in  this  condition?" 

I  wonder,  brethren,  leaders  in  Israel, 
shepherds  of  the  flock,  if  we  have 
thought  this  thing  over  seriously,  and  if 
we  have  taught  it  to  the  people  and  are 
continuing  to  teach  it  and  to  set  an  ex- 
ample before  them? 

I  want  you  to  know  the  attitude  of 
our  present  President  upon  this  impor- 
tant subject.  This  I  take  from  The  lm~ 
provement  Era  of  November,  1941. 
President  Grant  said: 

To  my  mind  one  of  the  greatest  and 
grandest  and  the  most  glorious  of  all  the 
labors  that  anyone  can  be  engaged  in  is 
laboring  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  of 
their  loved  ones,  their  ancestors  who  have 
gone  before,  who  had  not  the  privilege  of 
listening  to  the  gospel  and  embracing  it. 

President  Grant  believes  that  we 
should  be  doers  of  the  word  and  not 
hearers  of  it  only,  deceiving  ourselves. 
He  has  set  us  a  wonderful  example 
himself  going  through  the  temple  for 
the  dead,  and  employing  others  to  as- 


ELDER  JOSEPH  FIELDING  SMITH 


25 


sist  him,  and  it  is  perfectly  legitimate 
if  we  cannot  go  ourselves — you  men 
are  busy  men,  it  may  be  that  you  cannot 
go  to  the  temple  as  frequently  as  you 
would  like — there  are  poor  men  in  this 
Church  who  are  perfectly  willing  to 
represent  you  in  doing  this  endowment 
work,  and  be  it  known  that  all  the  other 
temple  work  will  be  done  for  you  gratu- 
itously by  the  workers  at  the  temples 
if  you  desire  them  to  do  so.  After  you 
obtain  the  genealogical  information  and 
present  it  at  the  temple,  just  the  endow- 
ment work  is  exacted  from  you.  Of 
course  if  you  can  do  all  the  other  work, 
it  will  be  so  much  better;  we  cannot 
expect  poor  people  to  do  the  endow- 
ment work  for  us  for  nothing.  For 
fifty  cents  we  can  employ  a  poor  man — 
I  say  poor,  one  whose  finances  are 
such  that  he  is  willing  to  do  that  work 
for  us,  provide  his  own  temple  clothing 
and  keep  it  clean  and  for  the  price 
named. 

Some  person  has  put  into  the  mouth 
of  the  Savior  these  words: 

Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share, 
For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare. 
Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three, 
Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor  and  Me. 

In  other  words,  we  kill  three  birds 
with  one  stone.  Here  is  an  opportunity 
to  kill  four  birds  with  one  stone:  I  em- 
ploy a  man  to  do  this  work  for  me,  I 
benefit  myself.    I  am  helping  one  who 

ELDER  JOSEPH 

Of  the  Council  of 

Since  the  beginning  of  this  Confer- 
ence I  have  had  a  number  of 
thoughts  and  I  would  like  to  add 
a  few  words  along  the  line  that  was 
presented  by  Brother  Richards  this  af- 
ternoon. 

In  His  justice  the  Lord  grants  every 
man  an  opportunity  of  salvation.  If 
he  does  not  get  that  opportunity  here, 
provision  is  made  for  him  to  hear  and 
accept,  if  he  will,  the  gospel  in  the 
spirit  world.  We  are  not  going  to 
save — perhaps  I  ought  to  say  exalt,  be- 
cause usually  when  we  use  that  term 
salvation  we  mean  exaltation — we  are 


is  needing  help — the  living — and  re- 
deeming my  dead.  By  redeeming  the 
dead  I  am  helping  my  Father  in  heaven 
and  His  Son  Jesus  Christ — a  glorious 
work. 

Because  of  the  greatness  of  the  re- 
sponsibility of  it,  brethren,  the  blessing 
is  correspondingly  great,  if  we  dis- 
charge ourselves  faithfully  of  the  re- 
sponsibility; and  I  can  say  the  conse- 
quences of  entire  neglect  of  this  respon- 
sibility are  correspondingly  great. 

You  know  how  it  was  with  the  rich 
man,  according  to  the  parable  by  the 
Savior,  who  neglected  to  feed  the  poor 
man  Lazarus.  When  the  rich  man  died, 
he  was  consigned  to  hell  and  torment. 
I  want  to  tell  you  we  are  rich  in  the 
things  of  eternal  life;  we  know  the  way, 
we  have  received  the  saving  ordinances. 
Our  dead  kindred  are  there  in  abject 
poverty.  If  we  do  not  minister  unto 
their  needs,  what  may  we  hope  for 
when  we  come  to  judgment  before  the 
Lord?  I  have  said  we  will  have  to  ac- 
count to  him.  We  have  accepted  this 
responsibility,  and  we  will  have  to  ac- 
count to  our  kindred  dead.  I  would 
have  you  and  myself  so  to  live  and  to 
labor  and  discharge  ourselves  of  these 
responsibilities  that  there  will  be  no  dis- 
appointment on  our  part,  and  no  disap- 
pointment on  the  part  of  our  kindred 
dead.  May  the  Lord  help  us  to  this 
end,  I  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
Amen. 

FIELDING  SMITH 

the  Twelve  Apostles 

not  going  to  exalt  all  the  inhabitants  of 
this  earth,  and  they  are  not  all  going 
to  find  a  place  in  the  celestial  kingdom 
of  God — very  few  in  fact  of  the  great 
mass  of  humanity  will  reach  exaltation. 
We  reach  that  conclusion  based  upon 
the  words  of  the  prophets  and  the  words 
of  our  Savior  himself: 

Enter  ye  in  at  the  strait  gate:  for  wide 
is  the  gate,  and  broad  is  the  way,  that 
leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there  be 
which  go  in  thereat: 

Because  strait  is  the  gate,  and  narrow 
is  the  way,  which  leadeth  unto  life,  and 
few  there  be  that  find  it.  (Matthew  7: 13-14^ 


26  GENERAL  ( 

Saturday,  April  1 

Now  destruction  means,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  banishment,  or  to  be  shut  out 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  have  to 
dwell  somewhere  else. 

It  is  our  opportunity  in  this  dispen- 
sation, and  our  privilege  and  duty  to 
spend  our  time  in  searching  out  our 
dead.  We  are  of  the  house  of  Israel. 
We  learn  that  through  revelation,  and 
that  being  true,  then  we  reach  the  con- 
clusion unless  we  have  been  adopted 
through  the  gospel  and  were  gentiles, 
that  our  ancestors  were  also  of  the 
house  of  Israel.  In  other  words,  the 
promise  made  to  Abraham  that  through 
the  scattering  of  his  seed  all  nations 
would  be  blessed,  has  been  fulfilled,  and 
our  lineage  has  come  down  generation 
after  generation  through  the  loins  of 
Abraham  and  the  loins  of  Israel.  There- 
fore our  fathers  are  more  likely  to 
receive  the  gospel  if  they  did  not  hear 
it  in  this  life,  to  receive  it  in  the  spirit 
world  than  are  those  whose  descendants 
are  not  in  the  Church,  and  who  refused 
to  received  the  gospel  here.  It  seems 
to  me  this  is  a  logical  conclusion. 

Now,  some  members  of  the  Church 
have  wondered  just  what  was  meant  by 
the  words  of  the  Prophet,  that  we  with- 
out our  dead  could  not  be  made  per- 
fect. Will  not  a  man  who  keeps  the 
commandments  of  the  Lord,  who  is 
faithful  and  true  so  far  as  he  himself 
is  concerned,  receive  perfection?  Yes, 
provided  his  worthy  dead  also  receive 
the  same  privileges,  because  there  must 
be  a  family  organization,  a  family  unit, 
and  each  generation  must  be  linked  to 
the  chain  that  goes  before  in  order  to 
bring  perfection  in  family  organization. 
Thus  eventually  we  will  be  one  large 
family  with  Adam  at  the  head,  Michael, 
the  archangel,  presiding  over  his  pos- 
terity, according  to  that  which  is  writ- 
ten in  the  Scriptures.  This  he  will  do 
under  the  direction  of  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel,  for  so  it  is  revealed  in  the 
Scriptures : 

That  you  may  come  up  unto  the  crown 
prepared  for  you  and  be  made  rulers  over 
many  kingdoms,  saith  the  Lord  God,  the 
Holy  One  of  Zion,  who  hath  established 
the  foundations  of  Adam-ondi-Ahman;  who 
hath  appointed  Michael  your  prince,  and 
established  his  feet,  and  set  him  upon  high, 


First  Day 

and  given  unto  him  the  keys  of  salvation 
under  the  counsel  and  direction  of  the  Holy 
One,  who  is  without  beginning  of  days  or 
end  of  life. 

I  think  we  ought  to  get  that  clearly 
in  our  minds  because  there  are  those 
who  are  trying  to  stir  up  trouble  among 
the  Latter-day  Saints  today  by  teach- 
ing doctrines  that  are  not  in  accordance 
with  the  revelations  of  the  Lord,  and 
maintaining  that  Authorities  of  the 
Church  who  have  gone  before  taught 
doctrines  which  they  did  not  teach. 
So  we  must  have  it  understood  clearly 
that  while  Adam  will  preside  over  his 
posterity  as  Michael,  the  prince,  and 
as  he  will  hold  the  keys  of  salvation,  as 
he  does,  all' of  that  will  be  under  the 
direction  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel,  for  Christ  is  greater  than 
Adam. 

We  are  taught  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  the  family  organization  will 
be,  so  far  as  celestial  exaltation  is  con- 
cerned, one  that  is  complete,  an  organ- 
ization linked  from  father  and  mother 
and  children  of  one  generation  to  the 
father  and  mother  and  children  of  the 
next  generation,  and  thus  expanding 
and  spreading  out  down  to  the  end  of 
time.  If  we  fail  to  do  the  work,  there- 
fore, in  the  temples  for  our  dead,  you 
see  our  links  in  this  chain — genealogical 
chain — will  be  broken,  we  will  have  to 
stand  aside  at  least  until  that  is  reme- 
died. We  could  not  be  made  perfect 
in  this  organization  unless  we  are 
brought  in  by  this  selective  or  sealing 
power,  and  if  we  have  failed  to  do  the 
work  for  those  of  our  line,  who  have 
gone  before,  we  will  stand  aside  until 
somebody  comes  along  who  will  do  it 
for  us;  and  if  we  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity and  have  failed  to  do  it,  then 
naturally  we  would  be  under  condem- 
nation, and  I  think  all  through  eternity 
we  would  regret  the  fact  that  we  had 
failed  to  do  the  thing  that  was  placed 
before  us  to  do  and  which  was  our  duty 
to  accomplish  in  the  salvation  of  the 
*  children  of  men. 

Another  thing  that  I  would  like  to 
say:  Some  of  us  get  so  enthusiastic 
over  this  temple  work  that  we  are  not 
willing  to  abide  by  the  rules  and  the 
regulations,  and  to  confine  ourselves  to 


ELDER  JOSEPH 

our  own  line,  but  we  want  to  spread 
out  into  the  other  fellow's  line,  and  we 
want  to  do  the  work  because  we  readily 
find  names  that  belong  to  somebody 
else,  and  that  method  of  work  for  the 
dead  is  not  permissible.  It  is  all  right 
to  help  others  do  their  work,  if  we  do 
that  with  proper  consent,  but  each  fam- 
ily group  is  entitled  to  do  the  work  for 
their  pasticular  line. 

One  more  thought  in  regard  to  this 
work  of  salvation:  A  great  many  peo- 
ple are  very  anxious  to  do  work  for 
friends,  and  this  thing  has  been  carried 
to  an  extreme.  We  do  not  need  to 
worry  ourselves  very  much  about 
friends.  A  man  came  to  me  a  few 
days  ago  and  presented  two  lists  and 
said  he  wanted  to  do  the  work  for 
these  people  because  they  were  his 
friends.  The  oldest  man  of  the  group 
was  born  in  1710,  and  his  children  were 
born  between  1730  and  1740,  yet  he 
called  them  his  friends.  Now  we 
should  confine  our  activities  to  our  own 
line.  If  there  is  a  good  reason  for  doing 
the  work  for  somebody  who  had  be- 
friended us,  somebody  who  would  have 
accepted  the  gospel  but  did  not  have 
the  opportunity  and  who  has  no  rela- 
tives in  the  Church  that  is  a  different 
matter,  and  we  may  be  privileged  to 
do  the  work,  but  we  need  not  be  over- 
anxious to  work  for  those  not  of  our 
own  lineage  whom  we  list  as  friends. 

TPhe  Lord  has  explained  to  us  very 
clearly  in  the  revelations  what  sal- 
vation means.  He  has  pointed  out  in 
one  of  these  revelations — section  76, 
which  is  known  to  us  as  The  Vision — 
very  clearly  who  shall  enter  the  celes- 
tial kingdom.  He  has  pointed  out  who 
shall  enter  the  terrestrial  kingdom,  and 
who  shall  enter  the  telestial  kingdom. 
These  are  three  great  kingdoms,  into 
which  mankind  will  go;  there  will  be 
some  few  exceptions.  The  sons  of 
perdition  are  those  who  have  had  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  have  known 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  Son  of  God, 
have  had  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord,  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  these 
things  have  all  been  revealed  so  that 
they  know  they  are  true;  and  then  they 
turn  against  them  and  fight  them  know- 


"IELDING  SMITH  27 

ingly.  Sons  of  Perdition  are  to  be  cast 
out  with  the  devil  and  his  angels  into 
outer  darkness.  Into  the  telestial  king- 
dom will  go,  according  to  that  which 
is  written  here  in  this  revelation,  the 
vicious,  the  unclean,  the  ungodly. 

These  are  they  who  say  they  are  some  of 
one  and  some  of  another— some  of  Christ 
and  some  of  John,  and  some  of  Moses,  and 
some  of  Elias,  and  some  of  Esaias,  and  some 
of  Isaiah,  and  some  of  Enoch; 

But  received  not  the  gospel,  neither  the 
testimony  of  Jesus,  neither  the  prophets, 
neither  the  everlasting  covenant. 

Last  of  all,  these  all  are  they  who  will  not 
be  gathered  with  the  saints,  to  be  caught  up 
into  the  church  of  the  Firstborn,  and  re- 
ceived into  the  cloud. 

These  are  they  who  are  liars,  and  sorcer- 
ers, the  adulterers,  and  whoremongers,  and 
whosoever  loves  and  makes  a  lie. 

These  are  they  who  suffer  the  wrath  of 
God  on  earth. 

These  are  they  who  suffer  the  vengeance 
of  eternal  Are. 

These  are  they  who  are  cast  down  to  hell 
and  suffer  the  wrath  of  Almighty  God,  until 
the  fulness  of  times,  when  Christ  shall 
have  subdued  all  enemies  under  his  feet,  and 
shall  have  perfected  his  work.  ...  (D.  & 
C.  76:100-106) 

The  Lord  says  even  of  this  class,  the 
liars,  and  the  unclean,  they  shall  be 
judged  according  to  their  works,  and 
every  man  shall  receive  according  to 
his  own  works,  his  own  dominion,  in 
the  mansions  which  are  prepared;  and 
they  shall  be  servants  of  the  Most  High, 
but  where  God  and  Christ  dwell  they 
cannot  come,  worlds  without  end." 
Of  course  the  Lord  is  going  to  make 
them  His  servants  in  the  world  to  which 
they  go;  in  that  telestial  world  they  will 
become  servants. 

They  who  enter  into  the  terrestrial 
kingdom,  the  one  higher  than  the  teles- 
tial, are  the  honorable  men — the  honest, 
the  virtuous,  those  who  have  been  clean, 
and  yet  would  not  receive  the  gospel. 
There  will  be  some  others  also  who 
will  go  into  that  kingdom,  but  in  a 
general  sense  these  people  will  be  the 
honest  and  honorable,  who  could  not  or 
would  not  see  or  receive  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  therefore  they  are  as- 
signed to  the  terrestrial  kingdom. 

Into  the  celestial  kingdom  will  go 


28 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

those  who  have  overcome  by  faith  and 
are 

Sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise, 
which  the  Father  sheds  forth  upon  all  those 
who  are  just  and  true. 

They  are  they  who  are  the  church  of 
the  Firstborn. 

They  are  they  into  whose  hands  the 
Father  has  given  all  things — ■ 

They  are  they  who  are  priests  and  kings, 
who  have  received  of  his  fulness,  and  of 
his  glory; 

And  are  priests  of  the  Most  High,  after 
the  order  of  Melchizedek,  which  was  after 
the  order  of  Enoch,  which  was  after  the 
order  of  the  Only  Begotten  Son. 

Wherefore,  as  it  is  written,  they  are  gods, 
even  the  sons  of  God — 

Wherefore,  all  things  are  theirs,  whether 
life  or  death,  or  things  present,  or  things  to 
come,  all  are  theirs  and  they  are  Christ's, 
and  Christ  is  God's.  (D.  &  C.  76:53-59) 

What  a  wonderful  thing  it  is  to  have 
the  opportunity  through  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  receiving  all  that  the 
Father  has,  to  become  sons  of  God! 

Now  they  who  enter  into  the  ter- 
restrial kingdom,  and  they  who  enter 
into  the  telestial  kingdom  will  not  be 
sons  of  God  in  the  sense  in  which  this 
term  is  used  here.  Of  course  we  are  all 
the  children  of  God,  every  soul  on  the 


First  Day 

earth;  we  are  His  offspring,  but  in  the 
great  kingdom  that  shall  be  established 
in  exaltation,  all  who  receive  exaltation 
will  become  sons  of  God,  joint  heirs 
with  Jesus  Christ  and  entitled  to  all  the 
privileges  and  all  the  blessiags  of  the 
Father's  kingdom.  What  a  wonder- 
ful privilege  that  is!  This  blessing  will 
not  come  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
telestial  and  the  terrestrial  worlds. 

Now  the  question  often  arises,  Is  this 
earth  upon  which  we  dwell  going  to 
be  one-third  celestialized,  one-third  ter- 
restrialized,  one-third  telestialized?  Are 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  going 
to  dwell  upon  the  earth?  No.  This  earth 
is  going  to  become  a  celestial  body  and 
is  going  to  be  a  fit  abode  for  celestial 
beings  only;  the  others  will  have  to  go 
somewhere  else,  where  they  belong. 
This  earth  will  be  reserved  for  those 
who  are  entitled  to  exaltation,  and  they 
are  the  meek,  spoken  of  by  our  Savior, 
who  shall  inherit  the  earth.  When  the 
Lord  said  the  meek  shall  inherit  the 
earth,  He  had  reference  to  those  who 
are  willing  to  keep  the  commandments 
of  the  Lord  in  righteousness  and  thus 
receive  exaltation. 

May  the  Lord  bless  us,  I  pray,  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


ELDER  LEVI  EDGAR  YOUNG 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


A noted  American  historian  has 
recently  written:  "I  wish  that 
people,  particularly  the  American 
people,  would  have  more  respect  for 
ancient  truths,  the  lessons  of  history, 
and  the  Word  of  God."  What  Amer- 
ica needs  besides  fifty  thousand  planes 
is  a  spiritual  awakening,  and  one  deep 
enough  to  remove  the  notion  from  so- 
ciety that  a  man  is  doing  well  spiritually 
when  he  manages  to  listen  to  a  sermon 
once  a  month  over  the  radio.  We  need 
a  return  to  the  old-time  standards  of 
character  that  make  it  easy  for  a  man 
to  become  indignant  over  corruption, 
come  to  a  boil  over  injustice,  and  get 
fighting  mad  over  a  wrong.  We  need 
a  reconstruction  of  moral  fiber  and  a 
areater  faith  in  the  purposes  of  the  Al- 
mighty. 


We  are  living  in  a  troubled  and  anx- 
ious world,  and  no  time  in  all  history 
have  men  watched  more  anxiously  over 
their  liberties  than  they  are  doing  to- 
day. Days  are  dark  for  millions  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth.  They  will  be 
darker  still.  But  we  have  the  will  of 
the  Lord,  and  consoling  are  the  words 
we  find  in  the  gospel  of  St.  John: 

Then  said  Jesus  ...  If  ye  continue  in  my 
word,  then  are  ye  my  disciples  indeed;  and 
ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free.  (John  8:31,  32) 

Having  been  absent  for  many  months 
in  the  New  England  Mission,  I  feel 
happy  in  renewing  my  work  with  the 
First  Council  of  the  Seventy.  As  I  have 
come  in  contact  with  many  of  you  stake 
presidents  during  the  past  few  days,  I 


ELDER  RICHARD  R.  LYMAN 


29 


feel  that  we  are  going  to  establish  a 
stronger  unity  between  you  and  the 
quorums  of  seventy  throughout  the 
Church.  We  are  grateful  to  you  stake 
presidents  for  your  cooperation  in  the 
past,  and  for  the  renewed  hope  and 
faith  that  the  gospel  will  be  preached 
to  all  the  people  of  the  earth.  Amid 
the  sorrows  of  this  war-torn  world,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  there  are 
men  walking  the  earth  beckoning  us  on 
— not  abreast  of  us,  but  ahead  of  us. 
Religion  explains  them  as  men  blessed 
of  heaven;  men  spiritually  endowed  who 
are  able  to  respond  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  infinite  power  of  God.  They  are 
good  men,  and  wonderful  is  the  vitality 
of  goodness.  They  know  that  God  has 
not  separated  Himself  from  the  world, 
nor  does  He  lightly  regard  anyone's 
need.  There  is  a  true  Light  "which 
lighteth  every  one  who  comes  into  the 
world,"  a  saying  rich  in  promise. 

God  has  again  spoken  from  heaven, 
and  the  Priesthood  of  God  has  again 
been  restored  to  the  earth.  Prophets, 
seers,  and  revelators  walk  the  earth. 
It  is  our  firm  conviction  that  the  work 
of  the,  Lord  will  grow  in  the  hearts  of 
men.  We  have  faith  in  people,  faith 
in  the  coming  of  God's  kingdom  upon 
the  earth.   Right  does  make  might,  and 


right  will  prevail  some  day  in  all  the 
world. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  what 
Thomas  Masaryk  once  wrote  while  he 
was  teaching.  You  recall  that  Dr. 
Masaryk  was  the  president  of  Czecho- 
slovakia. He  taught  that  a  good  leader 
does  not  need  to  be  master,  but  a  good 
leader  is  one  who  knows  how  to  serve 
and  feels  he  himself  is  guided  and  needs 
to  be  guided.  He  believed  in  living  a 
clean,  good  life,  and  he  was  tolerant, 
and  believed  that  all  religions  should 
work  together  to  make  a  friendly  world. 
These  are  some  of  the  things  he  taught: 

Search  for  truth. 

Nothing  is  great  if  it  is  not  true. 

Everything  in  a  democracy  depends  upon 

the  people. 
They  must  think  and  work  together. 
We  need  people  united  by  an  ideal.    It  is 

humanity  that  is  important. 

I  know  that  you  presidents  of  the 
stakes  of  Zion  and  we  seventies  with 
you  are  united  by  a  great  ideal.  With 
that  ideal,  we  will  work  with  larger 
purpose  for  the  cause  of  God.  May 
God  bless  us  all  from  day  to  day.  May 
we  have  the  light  of  His  kingdom  upon 
the  earth.  This  we  ask  in  His  Name. 
Amen. 


The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "God  Moves  In  A  Mysterious 
Way"  (Hymn  Book,  page  28). 


ELDER  RICHARD  R.  LYMAN 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


In  these  days  it  is  pretty  difficult  to 
think  of  anything  besides  war,  and 
the  great  question  is,  Who  is  going 
to  win  the  war?  I  have  here  a  clipping 
from  The  Deseret  News  of  February  5, 
1942.  The  heading  is,  "The  most 
healthy  will  win  the  war."  Dr.  Ray 
Lyman  Wilbur  expresses  these  views: 

The  people  with  the  most  health,  the 
people  with  the  most  vigor,  and  the  people 
with  the  most  fitness  and  sobriety,  training, 
and  devotion  to  the  common  cause  are  the 
people  who  are  going  to  win  this  war. 
America  must  throw  off  its  night-clubbish 
habits,  its  loose  thinking  and  health-destroy- 


ing tendencies  if  America  is  to  be  on  the 
winning  side. 

We  educators  know  that  the  easiest  way 
in  the  world  to  lose  a  football  game  is  to 
have  a  team  that  breaks  training  rules  and 
only  half  prepares  for  the  contest.  If  we 
the  Americans  are  to  be  the  winners  in  this 
great  contest,  we  must  begin  training,  and 
we  must  begin  that  training  now.  There 
is  no  way  to  escape  the  fact  that  health  will 
win  this  war  for  some  people.  God  grant 
that  that  people  may  be  the  people  of  our 
own  country. 

Of  the  first  two  million  men  to  go  through 
draft  examination,  900,000— think  of  it, 
900,000,  nearly  half— were  found  to  be 
unfit  for  military  service  because  of  physical, 
mental  or  moral  defects. 


30  GENERAL  C 

Saturday,  April  4 

Which?  Beer  or  the  Bible 

T  created  a  real  sensation  in  Ogden 
*■  some  years  ago.  I  had  seen  in  the 
morning  paper  a  picture  of  the  members 
of  the  American  Legion  marching  down 
Woodward  Avenue  in  the  City  of  De- 
troit where  I  marched  in  my  boyhood 
with  my  classmates  and  shouted  vigor- 
ously for  the  football  team  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan.  The  paper  said 
members  of  the  American  Legion  were 
marching  down  Woodward  Avenue 
swinging  their  bottles  and  shouting  for 
beer.  And  so  I  said  to  the  congrega- 
tion in  the  Tabernacle,  "Where  are  the 
people  of  the  United  States  going,  and 
what  are  they  doing?  Are  they  follow- 
ing the  lead  of  those  who  are  swinging 
their  bottles  and  shouting  for  beer,  or 
are  they  following  the  example  of  the 
Pilgrim  fathers  who  remembered  the 
Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,  and  with 
bowed  heads,  Bible  in  hand,  wended 
their  way  to  their  places  of  worship." 

Have  We  Forgotten  God? 

A  braham  Lincoln  set  apart  the  6th  of 
"  September,  1863,  as  a  day  of  fast- 
ing and  a  day  of  prayer.   He  said: 

I  do  this  with  the  hope  that  the  people 
of  our  nation  will  assemble  in  their  vari- 
ous places  of  worship  and  that  they  will  go 
down  upon  their  knees  around  their  own 
hearthstones  and  appeal  to  our  Heavenly 
Father  for  our  now  war-torn  country  to 
be  restored  to  its  former  condition  of  hap- 
piness and  peace.  .  .  .  Our  nation  has  had 
a  growth  and  a  development  the  like  of 
which  no  other  nation  has  known  in  all  the 
history  of  the  world,  but  the  difficulty  with 
us  is  we  have  forgotten  God. 

Does  that  condition  prevail  through- 
out the  United  States  of  America  to- 
day? The  motto  of  our  country  is:  "In 
God  We  Trust."  Do  we  do  it  or  not? 
Everywhere  we  sing, 

Long  may  our  land  be  bright 
With  freedom's  holy  light, 
Protect  us  by  thy  might, 
Great  God,  our  King. 

Family  Prayers  Daily 

"Doger  W.  Babson  says  that  we  have 
in  our  country  today  men  who  are 
empire  builders,  men  who  are  standing 


First  Day 

at  the  head  of  great  business  institu- 
tions, and,  he  says,  that  some  of  these 
men  ridicule  religion.  Then  he  adds, 
"These  very  men  are  indebted  for  all 
that  they  possess  to  the  family  prayers 
which  were  once  held  daily  in  the  homes 
of  their  fathers." 

Have  the  people  of  our  country  for- 
gotten God?  Benjamin  Franklin  arose 
in  our  Constitutional  Convention  and 
said,  "Mr.  President,"  and  he  looked 
into  the  face  of  the  chairman,  George 
Washington: 

Mr.  President,  our  blood  is  hot.  I  see 
we  are  not  going  to  be  able  to  agree.  It 
looks  as  if  we  may  not  be  able  to  devise 
a  satisfactory  Constitution.  I  move  you, 
therefore,  Mr.  President,  that  we  do  now 
adjourn  for  a  period  of  five  days,  and  that 
when  we  reconvene  we  appoint  a  chaplain, 
and  I  am  astonished,  Mr.  President,  that 
no  one  has  thought  of  this  before.  When 
we  were  in  our  mighty  conflict  with  Great 
Britain  we  met  in  this  very  hall  daily,  and 
daily  we  made  our  appeals  to  Almighty 
God,  and  you  all  realize  that  our  appeals 
were  heard,  our  prayers  were  graciously 
answered.  Is  it  possible  that  in  these  few 
short  years  we  have  forgotten  God,  our 
powerful  Friend?  Is  it  possible  that  a  na- 
tion can  be  born,  that  a  constitution  can 
be  drawn  up  without  the  help  of  divine 
Providence,  when  not  even  a  sparrow  can 
fall  to  the  ground  without  His  notice? 

The  Greatest  Democracy  in  the 
World 

^To  man  can  accomplish  much  if  he 
A^  has  only  one  pair  of  hands  with 
which  to  work.  No  man,  as  the  presi- 
dent of  a  stake  or  the  bishop  of  a  ward, 
or  at  the  head  of  any  other  insti- 
tution, can  accomplish  very  much  if  he 
tries  to  do  all  the  work  himself. 

I  have  said  a  good  many  times  to 
many  great  thinkers,  great  readers,  wise 
men  and  scholars  that  we  have  in  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  the  greatest  and 
most  perfect  democratic  organization 
in  the  world.  And  I  have  met  no  man 
yet  who  did  not  concede  that  this  state- 
ment is  correct. 

Now,  brethren,  you  who  are  in  the 
presidencies  of  the  stakes,  your  first 
and  most  important  duty  is  to  call  to- 
gether regularly  and  frequently  those 
who  belong  to  your  organizations  and 


ELDER  RICH, 

i 

assign  definitely  to  every  man  and  to 
every  woman  his  or  her  duty,  and  to 
check  up  carefully  and  frequently  to 
see  that  the  work  assigned  is  done.  I 
say  again  no  human  being  can  ac- 
complish much  if  he  works  only  by  him- 
self, if  he  has  but  one  pair  of  hands 
with  which  to  toil.  Your  accomplish- 
ments will  be  great  if  you  bring  together 
often  all  those  in  your  organizations 
and  have  them  do  real  team  work. 

Meet,  Plan,  and  Pray 

V^ou  are  to  meet  with  your  fellow 
■  workers  to  do  two  things — plan 
and  pray.  The  arm  of  flesh  is  weak; 
the  amount  of  strength  in  any  human 
being  is  limited,  but  when  a  human 
being,  however  weak,  however  small, 
however  little,  comes  into  real  com- 
munion and  cooperation  with  God,  the 
Eternal  Father,  then  great  things  may 
be  accomplished. 

And  so,  as  a  servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  I  appeal  to  you  to  come  to- 
gether frequently  with  your  fellow- 
workers,  and  do  these  two  important 
things — plan  and  pray.  Have  we  for- 
gotten God,  we  who  are  officers  in  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ?  Are  our  peo- 
ple daily  having  their  family  prayers, 
or  have  we  forgotten  that  powerful 
Friend  of  our  country,  that  powerful 
Friend  of  our  Church? 

This  revelation  from  which  I  am  go- 
ing to  read  was  not  given  to  the  an- 
cients, it  was  given  to  you  and  me;  it 
applies  here  and  now. 

.  .  .  Behold,  a  marvelous  work  is  about 
to  come  forth  among  the  children  of  men. 
(D.  &  C.  4:1) 

A  Marvelous  Work  and  a  Wonder 

Cince  the  gospel  is  to  be  preached  to 
M  every  nation,  every  kindred,  every 
tongue,  every  people,  everywhere  in 
the  world,  and  since  its  purpose  is  to 
bring  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to 
men,  that  great  blessing  for  which  all 
good  people  everywhere  are  praying 
this  very  Sabbath  day,  are  not  those 
words  of  the  Prophet  prophetic  when 
he  said: 


ID  R.  LYMAN  31 

Now  behold,  a  marvelous  work  and  a 
wonder  is  about  to  come  forth  among  the 
children  of  men. 

And  that  marvelous  work,  that  won- 
der, is  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  all  the  people  in  all  the 
world.  I  wonder  at  times  if  all  who 
have  held  the  divine  authority  to  preach 
had  done  their  very  best  during  the 
hundred  years  since  the  Lord  Himself 
restored  this  power  and  authority  to 
the  earth — I  say  if  every  man  with  all 
the  physical  and  mental  powers  at  his 
command  had  done  his  utmost  to  bring 
peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men; 
if  he  in  every  moment  of  his  life  had  had 
in  his  soul  unceasingly  a  burning  testi- 
mony of  the  divinity  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  a  testimony  of  the  divin- 
ity of  the  mission  of  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith,  if  every  man  had  put  his  all  upon 
the  altar,  I  wonder  if  this  world  war 
could  have  been  averted. 

Carrying  our  gospel  message  to  all 
the  people  in  the  world  is  a  tremendous 
work. 

Now  behold,  a  marvelous  work  and  a 
wonder  is  about  to  come  forth  among  the 
children  of  men. 

Therefore,  O  ye  that  embark  in  the  serv- 
ice of  God — 

Do  you  brethren  hear  these  words  of 
a  revelation  from  God  the  Eternal  Fa- 
ther through  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith 
to  you,  to  me,  to  us  who  are  assembled 
here  this  afternoon! 

Therefore,  O  ye  that  embark  in  the  service 
of  God,  see  that  ye  serve  him  with  all  your 
heart,  might,  mind  and  strength,  that  ye 
may  stand  blameless  before  God  at  the 
last  day.    (D.  6  C.  4:2) 

For  behold  the  field  is  white  already  to 
harvest.  (D.  6  C.  4:4) 

If  ever  a  field  was  white,  if  ever  there 
was  a  time  to  labor,  if  ever  the  servants 
of  God  were  in  demand  it  is  now. 

Field  White  and  Ready  for  Harvest 

Behold  the  field  is  white  already  to  har- 
vest; and  lo,  he  that  thrusteth  in  his  sickle 
with  his  might,  the  same  layeth  up  in  store 
that  he  perisheth  not,  but  bringeth  salvation 
to  his  soul.    (D.  &  C.  4:4) 


32 

Saturday ,  April  4 

Brethren,  God  bless  you.  Let  us 
dedicate  ourselves  with  all  we  have 
and  all  we  are  to  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  and  to  living  in 
accordance  with  the  high  ideals  of  the 
Church  and  to  the  winning  of  the  gi- 
gantic conflict  on  the  battlefield  into 
which  our  nation  has  been  compelled  to 
enter.  May  I  say  again,  let  us  dedi- 
cate ourselves  to  the  winning  of  this 
great  fight  for  liberty  and  freedom. 

Dedicating  Even  Life  to  a  Great 
Cause 

Tn  a  high  priests'  meeting  in  the  En- 
sign Stake  during  World  War  I, 
Richard  W.  Young,  brigadier  general, 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

said,  "I  told  my  son  good-bye  last  night 
and  sent  him  into  this  war.  I  may  never 
see  his  face  again.  Going  into  this 
mighty  conflict  may  cost  him  his  life. 
But  if  it  does,  he  could  not  possibly 
give  his  life  to  a  more  glorious  cause 
than  to  give  it  for  the  freedom  and 
liberty  not  only  of  the  people  of  our 
own  nation  but  of  all  mankind." 

And  so  let  us  in  real  humility  appeal 
to  God  the  Eternal  Father  to  enable 
us  to  discharge  well  our  duty,  to  preach 
the  gospel  effectively,  and  to  do  our 
utmost  to  make  the  people  of  our  na- 
tion worthy  of  victory.  God  grant  that 
we  may  be  worthy  and  that  we  may  win 
the  war. 


ELDER  JOHN  A.  WIDTSOE 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


The  present  unhappy  infernal 
conditions  of  the  world  are 
daily  before  us  and  our  peo- 
ple. We  cannot  forget  them.  The 
incomprehensible  folly  of  humanity 
bewilders  us.  All  Israel  are  anxious 
and  troubled.  Some  face  the  day 
in  fear.  Many  are  filled  with  pre- 
monitions and  forebodings.  To  cure 
this  condition;  to  steady  the  pulse 
of  our  people;  to  teach  the  ultimate 
conquest  of  right  over  wrong,  may 
be  our  immediate  problem.  Of  all 
people  in  the  world  we  should  and 
can  see  most  clearly  in  this  dark, 
man-made  chaos.  We  have  the  light. 
We  must  see  the  happy  destined  end 
from  a  dark  and  corrupt  beginning. 
The  Lord  has  spoken,  and  foretold 
the  calamities  of  the  last  days;  but 
He  has  also  declared  that  He  is  the 
Master  and  that  He  and  His  right- 
eous people  will  triumph  over  all 
evil.    The  Lord  is  never  defeated'. 

Questions,  conjectures,  and  spec- 
ulations are  rife  among  the  people. 
Some  ask,  "Is  this  Armageddon?" 
Others,  "Will  the  Savior  come  when 
this  war  is  over?"  Yet  others  are 
busily  engaged  in  proving  that  pres- 
ent events,  countries,  men,  and  even 


dates,  may  be  read  into  the  proph- 
ecies of  thousands  of  years  ago. 
To  all  such  questions  there  is  but  one 
answer:  We  only  know  that  this 
is  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness 
of  times,  the  Saturday  evening  of 
the  earth's  temporal  existence.  These 
are  the  "last  days,"  days  of  much 
commotion,  to  be  followed  by  the 
millennium  and  the  presence  on  earth 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  who  will 
"put  all  enemies  under  his  feet."  We 
know  that  the  coming  of  the  Lord  is 
nigh,  but  He  has  warned  us  that 
"the  hour  and  the  day  no  man  know- 
eth,  neither  the  angels  in  heaven,  nor 
shall  they  know  until  he  comes." 
(D.  6  C.  49:7)  All  that  has  been 
set  forth  in  great  clearness  in  the 
revelations  to  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith  and  his  successors.  There  is 
no  benefit  in  prying  beyond  the  re- 
vealed word  of  the  Lord. 

A  passage  in  the  Doctrine  and 
Covenants  foretells  and  explains  the 
sorrows  of  the  "last  days,"  and  it 
summarizes  the  message  of  the  Lord 
to  His  latter-day  people  concerning 
these  times  of  sadness.  (D.  &  C. 
63:32-34) 

I,  the  Lord,  am  angry  with  the  wicked; 


ELDER  JOHN  A.  WIDTSOE 


33 


I  am  holding  my  Spirit  from  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  earth.  I  have  sworn  in  my 
wrath,  and  decreed  wars  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth,  and  the  wicked  shall  slay  the 
wicked,  and  fear  shall  come  upon  every 
man;  and  the  saints  also  shall  hardly  es- 
cape; nevertheless,  I,  the  Lord,  am  with  them, 
and  will  come  down  in  heaven  from  the 
presence  of  my  Father  and  consume  the 
wicked  with  unquenchable  fire. 

Fear,  which  "shall  come  upon 
every  man,"  is  the  natural  conse- 
quence of  a  sense  of  weakness,  also 
of  sin.  Fear  is  a  chief  weapon  of 
Satan  in  making  mankind  unhappy. 
He  who  fears  loses  strength  for  the 
combat  of  life,  for  the  fight  against 
evil.  Therefore,  the  power  of  evil 
ever  seeks  to  engender  fear  in  human 
hearts.  In  this  day  of  sorrow,  fear 
walks  with  humanity.  It  directs, 
measurably,  the  course  of  every  bat- 
tle. It  remains  as  a  gnawing  poison 
in  the  hearts  of  victors  as  of  the 
vanquished. 

As  leaders  in  Israel,  we  must  seek 
to  dispel  fear  from  among  our  peo- 
ple. A  timid,  fearing  people  cannot 
do  their  work  well.  The  Latter-day 
Saints  have  a  divinely  assigned 
world-mission  so  great  that  they  can- 
not afford  to  dissipate  their  strength 
in  fear.  The  Lord  has  repeatedly 
warned  His  people  against  fear. 
Many  a  blessing  is  withheld  be- 
cause of  our  fears.  He  has  expressly 
declared  that  men  cannot  stop  his 
work  on  earth,  therefore,  they  who 
are  engaged  in  the  Lord's  latter-day 
cause  and  who  fear,  really  trust  man 
more  than  God,  and  thereby  are 
robbed  of  their  power  to  serve. 

HpHE  key  to  the  conquest  of  fear  has 
been  given  through  the  Prophet 
Joseph  Smith.  "If  ye  are  prepared 
ye  shall  not  fear."  (D.  &  C.  38:30) 
That  divine  message  needs  repeat- 
ing today  in  every  stake  and  ward. 
Are  we  prepared  in  surrender  to 
God's  commandments?  In  victory 
over  our  appetites?  In  obedience  to 


righteous  law?  If  we  can  honestly 
answer  yes,  we  can  bid  fear  depart. 
And  the  degree  of  fear  in  our  hearts 
may  well  be  measured  by  our  prep- 
aration by  righteous  living,  such  as 
should  characterize  Latter-day 
Saints.  To  the  handful  of  believers 
at  the  opening  of  this  dispensation, 
the  Lord  gave  this  glorious  promise: 

Fear  not,  little  flock;  do  good;  let  earth 
and  hell  combine  against  you,  for  if  ye  are 
built  upon  my  rock,  they  cannot  prevail. 
(D.  6  C.  6:34) 

Speaking  to  the  Church  about  the 
events  of  the  last  days,  the  Lord  said, 
"The  wicked  shall  flee  unto  Zion 
for  safety."  Since  Zion  is  wherever 
the  pure  in  heart  are,  I  like  to  read 
into  that  inspired  saying,  that  there 
is  safety  wherever  the  people  of  the 
Lord  live  so  worthily  as  to  claim  the 
sacred  title  of  citizens  of  the  Zion  of 
our  Lord.  Otherwise  the  name  Zion 
is  but  an  empty  sound.  The  only 
safety  that  we  can  expect  in  this  or 
any  other  calamitous  time  lies  in  our 
conformity  to  gospel  requirements. 

Every  individual  may  carry  the 
blessings  of  Zion  with  him  wherever 
he  goes.  Our  boys  who  have  been 
called  into  our  country's  service,  if 
they  keep  themselves  clean  and  un- 
dented, carry  Zion  with  them.  It  is 
my  faith  that  they  will  be  protected 
by  divine  power.  Should  they  fall 
in  action  or  from  disease  it  will  be 
with  the  consent  of  our  Father  in 
heaven.  Besides,  to  all  Latter-day 
Saints,  time  and  eternity  are  closely 
associated.  Our  sons  who  live 
righteously,  yet  who  may  lose  their 
lives  in  this  devil-engendered  war 
(and  may  they  be  few  in  number, 
I  pray )  will  enter  into  the  glory  pre- 
pared for  the  righteous.  The  Lord 
has  so  declared.  "Therefore,  who- 
soever belongeth  to  my  church  need 
not  fear,  for  such  shall  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  (D.  &  C.  10: 
55 )    And  also,  "fear  not  even  unto 


34  GENERAL  C 

Saturday,  April  4 

death;  for  in  this  world  your  joy  is 
not  full,  but  in  me  your  joy  is  full." 
(D.8C.  101:36) 

In  this  world  upheaval,  in  this  day 
of  wanton  destruction,  we,  as  a  peo- 
ple must  look  upward.  There  must  be 
trust  and  faith  in  our  hearts.  Hope 
must  walk  by  our  side.  We  must 
remember  charity  also.  We  must 
treasure  the  warm  words  of  the  Fa- 
ther to  His  Church,  "Be  of  good 
cheer,  and  do  not  fear,  for  I  the  Lord 
am  with  you,  and  will  stand  by  you." 
(D.  &C.  68:6)  We  who  have  been 
called  to  leadership  in  the  Church  of 
Christ  must  lead  our  people  from 
anxiety  and  fear  and  doubt,  to  trust 
and  faith  in  the  Lord,  and  certainty 
in  the  outcome  of  the  Lord's  plan  of 
salvation.  We  must  repeat  with  glad- 
ness the  words  of  the  Lord,  "Fear 
not,  let  your  hearts  be  comforted; 
yea,  rejoice  evermore,  and  in  every- 
thing give  thanks."  ( D.  &  C.  98 : 1 ) 

Above  the  roar  of  cannon  and  air- 
plane, the  maneuvers  and  plans  of 
men,  the  Lord  always  determines  the 
tide  of  battle.  So  far  and  no  farther 
does  He  permit  the  evil  one  to  go 
in  his  career  to  create  human  misery. 


First  Day 

The  Lord  is  ever  victorious;  He  is 
the  Master  to  whose  will  Satan  is 
subject.  Though  all  hell  may  rage, 
and  men  may  follow  evil,  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Lord  will  not  fail.  The 
God  of  Israel,  "He  slumbers  not  nor 
sleeps."  It  is  well  to  remember  the 
admonition  of  old:  "Be  still  and 
know  that  I  am  God." 

It  is  our  destiny  as  a  people  to 
purify  the  world;  to  lead  men  from 
evil  to  good;  to  win  the  nations  to 
the  realm  of  everlasting  truth;  to 
prepare  the  earth  for  the  coming  of 
the  Lord.  We  are  called  to  estab- 
lish the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 
If  we  accept  our  mission  with  faith 
and  the  courage  born  of  faith,  the 
Lord  will  make  us  victorious  in  our 
labors  in  his  cause.  Happiness  will 
wait  upon  us.  The  protection  of 
heaven  will  be  about  us.  At  this  time 
in  our  history,  let  us  teach  as  never 
before.  "If  ye  are  prepared,  ye  shall 
not  fear." 

May  the  Lord  qualify  us  for  the 
heavy  duties  of  this  day  I  pray  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Amen. 


BISHOP  LEGRAND  RICHARDS 

Presiding  Bishop  of  the  Church 


Brethren:  It  is  a  great  privilege  to 
associate  with  you  in  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Church,  and  I  feel  very 
grateful  for  the  kindness  that  has  been 
extended  to  me,  as  I  have  had  the  priv- 
ilege of  visiting  in  your  various  stakes. 
It  seems  that  the  Church  is  dearer  as 
we  become  better  acquainted  with  the 
men  upon  whom  such  responsibility 
rests. 

The  Church  has  always  placed  a 
high  value  upon  leadership,  righteous 
leadership.  When  the  Lord  was  talk- 
ing to  Abraham,  He  told  him  of  the 
spirits  He  had  created,  and  He  stood 
in  the  midst  of  them,  and  He  said: 
"These  I  will  make  my  rulers  upon  the 
earth."    Then  He  said  to  Abraham, 


"Abraham,  thou  art  one  of  them;  thou 
wast  chosen  before  thou  wast  born." 

It  seems  to  me  that  probably  there 
has  never  been  a  time  in  the  history  of 
the  world  when  there  were  as  many  of 
those  spirits  among  whom  the  Father 
stood  as  there  are  upon  the  earth  at  the 
present  time.  Now,  perchance,  if  we 
are  among  those  spirits  of  whom  the 
Father  spoke,  then  great  responsibility 
rests  upon  our  shoulders.  It  is  not 
enough  to  be  called,  to  be  given  tal- 
ents, to  be  given  an  opportunity,  but 
the  Master  indicated  that  those  who  are 
faithful  and  true  to  the  talents  that  were 
placed  in  their  hands,  they  it  was  who 
should  receive  His  blessing.  He  said 
unto  them:  "Well  done,  thou  good  and 


BISHOP  LE  GRAND  RICHARDS 


35 


faithful  servant,  thou  hast  been  faithful 
over  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler 
over  many  things.  Enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord." 

So  if  we  expect  to  continue  our  po- 
sitions of  leadership  it  will  be  because 
we  are  faithful  over  the  few  things  that 
the  Lord  has  entrusted  into  our  care. 

Now  we  feel  very  grateful  to  the 
members  of  the  stake  presidencies  and 
bishoprics  throughout  the  Church  for 
the  fine  support  we  have  had  in  the 
Aaronic  Priesthood  work  in  the  past 
three  years  since  we  came  into  office. 
I  would  like  to  call  your  attention  to 
the  fact  that  in  1939  we  had  two  hun- 
dred fifty-eight  standard  quorum 
awards  in  the  quorums  of  the  Aaronic 
Priesthood.  In  1940  we  had  five  hun- 
dred four,  or  an  increase  of  ninety-five 
percent.  In  1941  we  had  nine  hundred 
twelve,  and  requests  are  still  coming  in, 
which  is  an  additional  increase  of  eigh- 
ty-one percent  over  the  ninety-five  per- 
cent of  the  year  before.  Now  for  1942, 
according  to  the  promises  we  are  re- 
ceiving as  we  go  about  in  the  stakes 
of  Zion,  we  ought  to  have  nearly  two 
thousand. 

If  it  were  only  reports,  brethren,  that 
we  were  working  for,  that  would  not 
be  so  much,  but  when  these  standard 
quorum  awards  are  interpreted  in  terms 
of  the  influence  they  have  upon  the 
lives  of  the  Aaronic  Priesthood  of  the 
Church,  it  tells  quite  a  remarkable 
story. 

I  have  some  other  statistics  that  may 
interest  you:  The  three  highest  stakes 
in  the  Church  show  an  average  attend- 
ance last  year  of  sixty-five  percent  of 
their  boys — that  is  an  average  attend- 
ance! The  three  lowest  stakes  have  an 
average  of  nineteen  percent — nineteen 
percent  against  sixty-five  percent.  I 
want  you  to  think  about  that  for  a  few 
minutes.  I  wonder  if  it  is  the  fault  of 
the  boys;  I  wonder  if  it  is  the  fault  of 
the  Church;  I  wonder  if  the  Priesthood 
is  any  different  in  these  other  stakes. 
In  some  stakes  we  find  one  bishop  who 
is  outstanding,  and  qualifies  every  quo- 
rum in  his  ward,  and  then  we  turn  to 
the  other  wards,  and  there  are  no  stand- 
ard quorum  awards  there.  We  had  in 
our  office  yesterday  a  chairman  of  the 


Aaronic  Priesthood  in  one  of  the  stakes 
of  Zion  where  every  quorum  earned  a 
standard  quorum  award  for  1941.  I 
congratulated  him,  and  said:  "How  do 
you  do  it?"  He  said:  "We  have  an  up- 
and-coming  stake  presidency,  and  when 
we  have  that,  it  is  easy  to  do  the  job." 
He  said:  "We  tear  the  Progress  of  the 
Church  apart  and  we  mimeograph  it 
and  send  it  out  to  our  wards."  It  was 
not  hard  to  determine  why  all  the  quo- 
rums of  that  stake  were  standard  award 
quorums,  they  had  "an  up-and-coming 
stake  presidency."  We  have  "up-and- 
coming"  bishops  in  some  wards  that  in 
the  midst  of  no  awards  they  are  able 
to  furnish  them. 

I  would  like  to  give  you  some  statis- 
tics here  on  what  standard  quorum 
awards  have  really  done.  This  is  a 
percentage  of  the  two  highest  stakes  in 
the  Church  where  each  quorum  has 
earned  a  standard  quorum  award,  and 
the  two  lowest  where  they  have  no 
standard  quorum  awards: 

Attendance  at  quorum  meetings  for  the 
highest  was  an  average  of  sixty-six  percent; 
the  lowest  twenty-eight  percent. 

This  is  the  average  observing  the  Word 
of  Wisdom;  ninety-four  percent  as  against 
eighty-five  percent. 

We  are  very  happy  that  the  Word  of 
Wisdom  is  being  that  well  observed,  re- 
gardless of  the  standard  quorum  awards. 

The  payment  of  tithing  in  the  highest 
stakes,  seventy-five  percent;  in  the  lowest 
stakes,  thirty-eight  percent. 

The  percent  of  Adult  Aaronic  Priesthood 
in  these  stakes,  in  the  highest,  forty-two  per- 
cent; in  the  lowest  seventy-five  percent. 

So  you  see  it  tells  its  own  story. 
Where  there  are  no  standard  quorum 
awards,  where  the  work  is  not  being 
done  among  the  Aaronic  Priesthood, 
they  are  moving  into  what  we  call  the 
Adult  Aaronic  Priesthood  group. 

Drethren,  I  believe  it  is  a  fine  thing 
^*  to  be  in  positions  of  responsibility 
in  the  Church,  but  the  Lord  expects 
more  of  us  than  to  be  good  men.  I 
think  that  comes  first,  but  He  wants  us 
to  be  active  men. 

There  is  one  stake  of  Zion  in  this 
Church  in  which  I  have  been  very  much 
interested  for  many  years.      I  have 


36 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

watched  its  progress,  and  I  have  kept 
track  of  its  record  on  the  bulletin.  Three 
years  ago  there  was  a  change  made  in 
the  stake  presidency.  The  man  who 
was  released  is  a  fine  Latter-day  Saint, 
a  real  man,  but  he  did  not  seem  to  have 
the  vision  of  things,  and  according  to 
the  report  in  the  last  three  years,  since 
the  change,  that  stake  has  increased  its 
record  sixty-six  percent  in  all  items, 
total  and  average,  that  are  shown  in 
the  bulletin.  Now  that  shows  leader- 
ship. When  that  stake  presidency  was 
appointed,  they  came  in  and  said: 
"Bishop,  have  you  any  suggestions  to 
make?" 

I  said:  "I  would  have  at  least  one. 
I  would  go  out  and  inventory  every 
man  and  woman  in  that  stake  of  Zion 
who  have  leadership  ability,  no  matter 
where  they  are  serving.  It  is  my  ob- 
servation as  I  travel  in  the  Church  that 
we  have  many  fine  men,  capable  men, 
who  are  not  active  in  the  Church,  hun- 
dreds and  possibly  thousands  of  men 
who  have  had  training  in  the  mission 
field,  and  they  come  home  and  we  lose 
their  services,  but  they  may  be  engaged 
in  other  activities." 

According  to  the  newspaper  ac- 
counts, all  that  was  being  accomplished, 
from  month  to  month  in  the  community 
was  being  done  by  the  service  clubs — 
Kiwanis  Club,  Rotary  Club,  Exchange 
Club,  Lion's  Club,  etc.,  on  down  the 
line — the  Daughters  of  the  Pioneers,  the 
Mothers  of  the  Democrats,  the  Mothers 
of  the  Republicans,  etc.;  so  I  said  to 
the  president  of  the  stake:  "Sometimes 
I  wonder  where  the  kingdom  of  God 


First  Day 

is  in  this  stake  of  Zion.  I  never  felt 
more  than  I  do  today  the  meaning  of  the 
words  of  the  Master  when  He  said: 
'Every  plant  that  my  Father  hath  not 
planted  shall  be  rooted  up,'  and  I  be- 
lieve that  with  all  my  heart."  I  have 
nothing  against  these  other  organiza- 
tions, but  I  believe  that  men  in  Israel 
owe  their  first  allegiance  to  the  Church 
and  kingdom  of  God,  and  I  want  to 
admonish  you  brethren  to  put  your  arms 
around  men  and  put  them  to  work,  and 
when  they  are  released  from  positions, 
do  not  feel  that  there  is  no  place  for 
them. 

I  had  a  letter  from  a  bishop  the  other 
day  and  he  said:  "Since  they  released 
me  I  have  taken  over  the  Adult  Aaronic 
Priesthood  in  the  ward.  We  have 
forty-two  enrolled  and  we  are  having 
an  average  attendance  of  fifteen  to 
twenty-five  in  my  home  every  Monday 
night."  There  is  work  for  everybody 
if  we  are  going  to  discharge  the  respon- 
sibilities that  are  ours  in  this  great  day 
of  the  fulness  of  times. 

As  I  close  my  remarks,  I  refer  you  to 
the  words  of  Nephi  when  he  saw  the 
coming  forth  of  the  gospel  in  our  day, 
and  he  said:  Blessed  are  they  who 
shall  seek  to  bring  forth  my  Zion  in  that 
day,  for  they  shall  be  lifted  up  and  be 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  be  ex- 
alted in  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  my 
Father.  How  beautiful  upon  the  moun- 
tains are  the  feet  of  them  that  publish 
glad  tidings!  (1  Nephi  13:37) 

God  help  us  to  see  our  responsibilities 
and  to  do  them,  I  pray  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ,  Amen. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

Brethren:  We  are  one  day  short  in  our  full  Conference  time.  I  want 
to  run  over  a  little  now,  and  we  will  probably  have  to  run  over  a  little 
tonight.  I  am  going  to  ask  Brother  Sonne  to  take  enough  time  to  bear  his 
testimony.  He  has  recovered,  apparently  fully,  from  a  very  serious  opera- 
tion and  likewise  from  a  serious  sorrow.  So  we  will  take  enough  time  now 
to  hear  Brother  Sonne  bear  his  testimony. 


ELDER  ALMA  SONNE  37 

I 

ELDER  ALMA  SONNE 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 

MY  brethren:  I  appreciate  more  May  our  testimonies  grow.    May  our 

now  than  ever  before  my  mem-  knowledge  of  the  truth  increase,  so  that 

bership  in  the  Church.    I  am  when  calamities  and  disturbances  come 

thankful  beyond  my  power  to  express  we  may  say  in  the  words  of  the  scrip- 

for  my  faith  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus  tures:  "The  judgments  of  the  Almighty 

Christ.    I  am  happy  that  I  was  born  a  are  righteous  altogether." 

member  of  this  Church  and  that  I  have  j  ^  God>s  wofk  fa         the  earth> 

asntf 2L2t?a2?5te  ^ h^j^^ ****** 

me;  He  has  heard  my  prayers,  and  He  Hls  Church  amon9  men- 

has  come  to  my  rescue.  May  we  be  true  to  our  responsibili- 

Men  and  women  need  a  vindication  ties;  may  we  carry  forward  in  our  du- 

against  the  tyranny  of  death  and  time,  ties,  that  when  our  work  is  done  we 

and  that  vindication  is  supplied  best  of  may  receive  the  plaudit,  "Well  and 

all  in  the  restoration  of  the  everlasting  faithfully  done;  enter  into  the  joys  of 

gospel  in  these  the  last  days.  thy  Lord,"  I  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus 

May  we  be  true  to  our  covenants.  Christ,  Amen. 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 
We  will  close  by  singing,  "O  My  Father." 

The  closing  prayer  after  the  song  will  be  offered  by  President  George 
E.  Jorgensen  of  Carbon  Stake. 

After  the  prayer  we  shall  stand  adjourned  until  seven  o'clock  this 
evening  in  this  place. 

I  should  like  to  say  to  the  brethren  farther  back  there,  that  both  this 
morning  and  this  afternoon  there  were  quite  a  number  of  seats  in  front 
here  where  probably  you  would  be  enabled  to  hear  better.  If  the  brethren 
in  front  would  come  closer  this  evening  I  am  sure  quite  a  number  who 
are  back  there  under  the  gallery  could  come  here  where  they  can  hear. 
I  may  say  that  the  loud  speaking  equipment  is  as  good  as  we  can  furnish 
you.  You  can  see  that  it  is  not  the  best,  but  we  will  try  to  make  still  further 
adjustments  in  the  hope  that  we  can  make  you  hear  better  this  evening 
than  you  have  heard  today. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "O  My  Father"  (Hymn  Book, 
page  143). 

Elder  George  E.  Jorgensen,  President  of  the  Carbon  Stake,  offered 
the  closing  prayer. 

Conference  adjourned  until  7:00  p.  m. 

FIRST  DAY 
EVENING  MEETING 

The  third  session  of  the  Conference  convened  in  the  Assembly  Hall, 
Saturday  evening,  April  4,  and  commenced  promptly  at  7  o'clock  p.  m. 

President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  presided  and  conducted  the  services. 


38 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4  First  Day 

PRESIDENT  ].  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

President  Grant  wishes  me  to  express  his  regrets  that  he  felt  it  would 
be  unwise  in  view  of  the  long  meeting  tomorrow,  for  him  to  come  out  this 
evening.  He  wanted  me  to  express  to  you  his  joy  at  the  Conference  thus 
far  and  to  tell  you  that  he  looks  forward  to  seeing  you  in  the  morning. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "How  Firm  A  Foundation,"  (Hymn 
Book,  page  260). 

Elder  Joseph  B.  Harris,  President  of  the  San  Juan  Stake,  offered  the 
invocation. 

The  hymn,  "O  Ye  Mountains  High"  (Hymn  Book,  page  376),  was 
then  sung  by  the  congregation. 

ELDER  JOSEPH  F.  MERRILL 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


IN  a  very  real  sense,  brethren,  this 
is  a  remarkable  gathering.  There 
is  assembled  here  what  I  think  we 
in  truth  may  say  is  the  most  favored 
group  of  men  in  all  the  world.  In  a 
body  of  this  size  no  other  similar  as- 
sembly could  be  had  anywhere  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  There  are  here  the 
leaders  of  the  Church  and  of  the  stakes 
of  the  Church,  God's  Church.  We  all 
know  that  not  one  of  us  has  a  particle 
of  doubt  about  that.  Because  we  have 
been  privileged  to  come  to  the  posi- 
tions that  we  occupy  and  to  function 
therein,  I  think  we  are  wonderfully  fa- 
vored of  our  Father  in  heaven. 

Bishop  Richards  this  afternoon 
spoke  about  the  Aaronic  Priesthood. 
If  I  may,  I  would  like  to  speak  a  few 
minutes  about  the  Melchizedek  Priest- 
hood. It  is  the  Priesthood,  of  course, 
that,  in  a  sense,  makes  the  Church.  To 
preside  over,  to  guide  and  direct  the 
Priesthood,  is  the  chief  responsibility 
of  us  who  are  assembled  here;  and  par- 
ticularly do  the  presidencies  of  stakes 
have  the  responsibility  of  presiding 
over  and  directing  the  labors  of  the 
Melchizedek  Priesthood  in  their  stakes. 

It  was  nearly  five  years  ago,  in  an- 
swer to  a  question,  that  President  Grant 
reminded  the  Council  of  Twelve  that 
they  constitute  the  General  Priesthood 
Board  of  the  Church;  and  President 
Clawson,  I  remember,  said  President 
Smith  gave  the  same  answer  once  dur- 
ing his  administration.    The  Council 


of  Twelve  began  to  think,  after  that  re- 
mark of  President  Grant's,  a  little  more 
intently  of  their  responsibility  for  the 
welfare  of  the  Priesthood  of  the 
Church,  particularly  the  Melchizedek 
Priesthood  quorums  thereof,  and  so 
they  began  to  work.  And  there  was 
announced,  in  the  issue  of  The  Im- 
provement Era  four  years  ago  last  De- 
cember, what  was,  according  to  the 
headlines  of  the  article,  a  new  Priest- 
hood plan.  Well,  there  was  nothing 
new  in  principle  about  it;  however, 
its  title  was  intriguing,  and  I  presume 
that  all  in  the  stakes  who  had  any  re- 
sponsibility for  the  Melchizedek  Priest- 
hood read  the  article. 

Now,  in  response  to  a  petition  of 
the  general  Sunday  school  board,  and 
in  accordance  with  what  had  been  the 
expressed  wishes  of  some  members  of 
the  Council  of  the  Twelve  the  Priest- 
hood classes,  Melchizedek  and  Aaronic, 
were  taken  out  of  the  Sunday  schools. 
I  think  this  was  a  good  move.  The 
Priesthood  classes  of  the  Church,  par- 
ticularly the  Melchizedek  Priesthood 
classes,  had  grown  to  believe  that  to 
be  active  in  the  Priesthood  quorums 
was  to  attend  the  weekly  or  the  month- 
ly meetings  of  the  quorum;  and  if  that 
was  done  one  was  considered  to  be 
wholly  active.  We  seemed  to  have 
forgotten  the  fact  that  in  this  Church 
we  get  joy  through  activity.  When  we 
attend  our  class,  sit  quietly,  and  listen 
to  somebody  conduct  the  lesson,  then 


ELDER  JOSEPH  F.  MERRILL 


39 


get  up  and  go  away,  the  amount  of 
activity  in  which  we  engage  is  extreme- 
ly small. 

In  taking  the  classes  of  the  Priest- 
hood groups  and  quorums  out  of  the 
Sunday  school,  it  was  not  designed,  at 
all,  to  say  the  class  work  was  not  im- 
portant, but  it  was  designed  to  empha- 
size another  feature  that  had  become 
more  or  less  quiescent — the  feature  of 
activity;  and  so  since  that  time  the 
Council  of  Twelve,  together  with  the 
other  general  Priesthood  authorities  of 
the  Church,  as  they  have  gone  out 
through  the  stakes,  have  been  very  in- 
sistent in  urging  the  presidencies  of 
stakes — because  they  are  the  respon- 
sible officers  in  the  stakes — to  look 
carefully  to  the  supervision  and  guid- 
ance of  the  work  of  the  Priesthood. 
No  more  responsible  work,  no  greater 
obligation  exists  in  the  stakes  than  that 
of  properly  supervising  the  Priesthood 
quorums. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  effort 
spent,  in  the  last  four  years,  in  trying 
to  improve  the  activity  of  Priesthood 
quorums,  particularly  of  the  Melchize- 
dek  Priesthood  quorums,  but  the  prog- 
ress has  been  rather  slow.  Though  I 
think  that  if  we  compare  the  results 
today  and  judge  our  reports  with  the 
reports  that  were  obtainable  at  that 
time,  we  will  see  that  there  has  been 
improvement;  and  yet  it  is  rather  disap- 
pointing, when  we  come  to  realize  what 
the  Priesthood  means  and  what  it  is, 
that  improvement  has  not  been  more 
rapid. 

Of  course,  we  realize  this  fact,  that 
all  of  this  work  is  wholly  voluntary. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  force  in  the 
Church.  There  is  no  desire  to  use 
force,  even  if  it  could  be  used.  It  is 
love  that  is  the  dominating  factor  in 
the  Church,  and  it  is  through  love  that 
we  have  been  trying  to  get  our  brothers 
to  feel,  to  a  greater  degree  than  they 
did  in  the  past,  their  responsibilities 
as  holders  of  the  Priesthood.  To  be 
ordained  to  the  Priesthood,  in  itself, 
may  bring  no  blessing:  It  may  bring 
condemnation.  It  gives  an  opportunity, 
a  wonderful  opportunity,  in  the  light 
of  the  real  truth  in  the  circumstance, 
for  personal  growth  and  development. 


So  an  individual  who  is  privileged  to 
receive  the  Priesthood  has  been  hon- 
ored with  a  very  great  opportunity. 

■Mow,  what  we  have  been  trying  to 
^  do,  brethren,  as  you  know,  is  to 
emphasize  the  need  of  improving  that 
opportunity,  in  order  that  we  might 
live  more  acceptably  to  our  Father  in 
heaven.  As  a  means  of  stimulating 
that  activity,  a  committee  was  set  up 
in  every  stake — the  stake  Melchizedek 
Priesthood  committee — and  it  was  ad- 
vised that  a  member  of  the  stake  presi- 
dency should  be  chairman  of  that  com- 
mittee, the  thought  being  to  emphasize 
to  the  stake  presidencies  that  it  was 
their  responsibility  to  supervise  the 
work  of  the  Melchizedek  Priesthood 
quorums  in  their  stakes. 

The  chief  duty  of  that  committee 
is  to  train  the  quorum  officers  in  their 
duties  and  responsibilities,  and  so  it 
was  advised  that  a  monthly  meeting 
be  held  with  all  the  Priesthood  quorum 
officers  and  group  leaders.  A  program 
for  these  meetings  was  discussed  in 
several  subsequent  issues  of  The  lm~ 
provement  Era. 

Well,  brethren,  progress  has  been 
made,  we  think,  in  an  understanding 
by  this  stake  committee  of  its  responsi- 
bilities, and  we  believe  those  commit- 
tees are  growing  in  efficiency  in  dis- 
charging the  responsibility  of  training 
the  officers,  but  there  is  still  much  to 
be  accomplished. 

Now,  may  I  say  that,  among  other 
things,  we  instituted  a  quarterly  report 
and  asked  that  every  quorum  and  every 
quorum  group  fill  out  a  quarterly  re- 
port form  in  triplicate,  keep  one  and 
send  two  to  the  chairman  of  the  stake 
committee,  who  keeps  one  and  sends 
one  on  to  the  Melchizedek  Priesthood 
committee  of  the  Council  of  Twelve. 
Those  reports  have  been  coming  in. 
They  indicate,  as  I  said  a  moment  ago, 
some  advancement  and  progress,  but 
not  as  much  as  we  hoped  for.  There 
are  still  some  things  that  are  lacking. 

We  know  that  a  number  of  years 
ago  there  was  advised  to  be  set  up  in 
every  quorum  four  standing  commit- 
tees. They  were  named.  Their  duties 
were  specified.   Generally  the  commit- 


40 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday.  April  4 

tees  were  appointed,  but  even  today 
some  of  them,  according  to  reports, 
are  not  functioning  well.  Do  we  re- 
member two  things  must  be  done  if  a 
standing  committee  continues  to  func- 
tion well?  Frequent  assignments  must 
be  made  and  frequent  reports  required. 
Don't  give  a  blanket  assignment,  turn 
the  committee  loose,  and  expect  it  to 
operate.  Make  those  assignments  fre- 
quently, and  then  ask  for  a  report  on 
every  assignment.  The  report,  of 
course,  may  be  oral,  it  may  be  written, 
but  a  report  should  be  required  on 
every  assignment.  When  the  assign- 
ment is  made,  the  assigning  authority 
— of  course  that  is  the  presidency  of 
the  quorum — should  keep  in  touch  with 
those  who  receive  the  assignment  and 
see  that  they  are  functioning. 

In  the  February  number  of  The  Im- 
provement Era  an  article  that  was 
written  by  Elder  Joseph  Fielding  Smith 
indicated  in  very  clear  terms  what  the 
duties  of  these  committees  are.  But 
in  order  that  these  committees  should 
function,  and  in  order  that  the  presi- 
dency of  the  quorum  should  feel  it  is 
their  responsibility  to  see  that  they 
function,  it  was  advised  that  the  presi- 
dency of  the  quorum  divide  themselves 
among  these  committees,  each  one  of 
the  presidency  being  chairman  of  a 
committee.  Now  since  there  are  four 
standing  committees,  the  chairman  of 
one  of  them  will  have  to  be  chosen 
from  the  membership.  The  particular 
committees  of  which  the  presidents 
should  be  the  chairmen  were  indicated 
in  the  article. 

Well,  brethren,  I  want  to  repeat  that 
in  order  to  get  your  committees  at  work 
and  keep  them  at  work,  it  is  necessary 
to  make  frequent,  specific  assignments, 
and  then  to  make  a  demand  for  reports 
on  those  assignments. 

Now,  there  is  another  thing  that  we 
feel  ought  to  be  done,  in  order  that 
the  presidencies  of  quorums  may  meet 
their  responsibilities  to  a  greater  de- 
gree than  they  did  in  the  past.  What 
do  we  advise?  We  advise  that  the 
presidencies  of  these  quorums,  who  are 
held  responsible  for  their  quorums, 
should  see  that  the  requirements,  as 


First  Day 

indicated  by  the  questions  on  the  report 
forms,  are  definitely  assigned,  and  that 
they  are  met.  That  is  going  to  be  some 
considerable  responsibility.  But  in  or- 
der that  this  may  be  done,  we  feel  that 
the  presidencies  of  quorums  should 
meet  more  frequently  than  they  have 
been  doing — more  frequently  than  once 
a  month.  No  presidency  of  a  stake 
can  function  unless  they  have  regular 
weekly  meetings.  As  a  rule,  no  bish- 
opric can  function  unless  they  have 
regular  weekly  meetings.  We  feel  that 
presidencies  of  quorums  should  meet 
weekly,  wherever  it  is  feasible  to  do 
so,  and  that  would  be  in  the  great  ma- 
jority of  cases.  Meet  weekly.  Let 
them  meet  with  the  idea  of  getting  on 
their  knees,  brethren,  and  pray  de- 
votedly and  wholeheartedly  and  hon- 
estly to  the  Lord  for  wisdom  and  guid- 
ance, and  then  get  up  and  put  their  wits 
to  work  and  try  to  plan  how  to  make 
their  assignments,  how  to  meet  their 
responsibilities,  how  to  increase  the 
activities  of  their  committees  and  of 
their  members. 

Tn  every  report  there  are  some  things 
even  though  the  report,  on  the  whole, 
is  excellent — some  things  in  which  the 
quorum  is  weak.  Do  the  presidency 
feel  it  is  their  responsibility  to  call  at- 
tention to  that,  and  to  try  to  encourage 
their  committees,  to  encourage  their 
members,  whoever  have  the  responsi- 
bility of  improving  in  the  particular 
respects  where  weakness  is  indicated? 
Do  they  feel  that  they  should  keep 
near  to  them  in  that  respect? 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  two 
or  three  activities,  among  others,  that 
we  have  been  very  earnestly  recom- 
mending and  urging  to  be  done. 

You  know  since  the  beginning  of  our 
country's  participation  in  war  activities 
more  and  more  of  our  brethren  have 
been  leaving  home,  entering  defense  in- 
dustries, military  forces,  and  so  forth. 
We  have  been  urging,  in  accordance 
with  the  recommendation  that  was 
made  here  by  President  Thomas  E. 
McKay  this  morning,  that  every  quo- 
rum feel  that  it  is  its  responsibility  to 
keep  in  close  touch  with  absent 
brethren.     A  quorum  is  a  group  of 


\ 


ELDER  JOSEF 

brethren  bound  together  by  love,  by 
feelings  of  fraternity,  and  sympathy 
and  fellowship  and  mutual  interest. 
Does  it  not  seem,  from  the  standpoint 
of  what  is  reasonable  in  the  matter, 
that  it  is  unthinkable  that  a  member 
from  a  quorum  can  go  away  and  be 
away  for  three  months  or  longer,  and 
the  quorum  make  no  effort  whatsoever 
to  get  in  touch  with  and  hear  from  that 
absent  member? 

Now,  it  is  recommended  that  he  be 
written  to  at  least  monthly,  wherever 
this  is  feasible.  Certainly,  brethren, 
all  those  that  are  away  from  the  quo- 
rum, not  only  in  the  armed  forces,  but 
away  from  home  in  defense  work  any- 
where, should  be  communicated  with 
at  least  once  a  month.  It  should  be 
somebody's  business  in  the  quorum  to 
do  this.  Whether  the  president  wants 
his  welfare  committee  or  others  to  have 
this  special  assignment  is  a  matter  that 
is  apart  from  the  fact  that  it  ought  to 
be  somebody's  business  in  behalf  of 
the  quorum,  to  write  friendly,  encour- 
aging, helpful  letters  frequently  to  those 
that  are  away. 

Now,  our  boys  that  are  going  into 
the  armed  forces  meet  tremendous  dif- 
ficulties and  temptations  and  they  need 
all  the  encouragement,  all  the  help  they 
can  get.  So  we  have  asked — and  I 
am  going  to  ask  now,  brethren, — will 
you  presidencies  of  stakes  see  that 
in  your  stake  every  quorum  is  instruct- 
ed to  keep  in  touch  with  these  ab- 
sentees? 

Now,  time  admits  only  a  reference 
to  one  thing  more.  It  was  five  years 
ago  this  month  that  the  Presidency  of 
the  Church  wrote  to  the  Council  of 
the  Twelve,  they  put  it  in  writing — 
not  by  oral  instruction  only,  but  they 
put  it  in  writing — and  directed  that 
there  should  be  instituted  in  the  Church 
a  campaign  for  the  non-use  of  liquor 
and  tobacco.  They  directed  it  should 
be  a  Priesthood  project.  All  quorums 
of  the  Priesthood,  Melchizedek  and 
Aaronic,  should  be  held  responsible  for 
cleaning  up  their  own  membership  from 
the  use  of  these  narcotics,  liquor  and 
tobacco.  In  the  quorum  quarterly  re- 
port forms  are  questions  relative  to 
this  liquor-tobacco  campaign.  Among 


I  F.  MERRILL  41 

the  questions  are  these:  How  many 
abstain  from  the  use  of  liquor  and  to- 
bacco? That  number  is  very  generally 
given.  How  many  of  the  addicts  are 
being  labored  with?  The  majority  of 
the  quorums  in  the  Church  today  are 
saying:  "None." 

Now,  brethren,  I  am  speaking  very 
plainly  on  the  matter.  It  seems  to  me 
that  it  is  unthinkable  that  an  assign- 
ment to  the  Priesthood  quorums  direct 
from  the  First  Presidency  should  go 
unheeded.  I  have  never  known  of  any 
project  being  assigned  more  directly 
than  that.  And  yet  some  of  the  quorums 
are  not  doing  anything,  apparently, 
with  their  addict  members.  Oh,  yes, 
they  sponsor  public  lectures,  perhaps 
have  somebody  come  into  the  classes 
and  talk,  and  so  on.  That  isn't  the 
way,  brethren,  the  effective  missionary 
work  of  this  Church  is  carried  on.  That 
isn't  the  way  the  stake  or  foreign  mis- 
sionaries are  mainly  functioning.  It 
is  mainly  by  personal  contact  that  mis- 
sionaries work.  That  has  been  the 
method  from  the  beginning  that  has 
won  people. 

The  first  phases  of  this  campaign, 
may  I  say,  were  devoted  to  what  we 
called  the  campaign  of  information. 
We  have  sent  out  more  than  a  million 
pieces  of  literature,  which  have  been 
spread  all  over  the  Church  and  very 
generally  read,  in  all  the  Priesthood 
quorums. 

Then  we  reached  what  President 
Clawson  called  the  campaign  of  per- 
suasion. "Know  this,  that  every  soul 
is  free  to  choose  his  life  and  what  he'll 
be.  For  this  eternal  truth  is  given, 
God  will  force  no  man  to  heaven.  He'll 
call,  persuade,  direct  aright,  in  numer- 
ous ways  be  good  and  kind,  but  never 
force  the  human  mind." 

The  campaign  of  persuasion,  breth- 
ren, uses  the  method  of  personal  con- 
tact. Will  you  presidencies  of  stakes 
see  that  this  direct  assignment  from 
the  First  Presidency  is  carried  out  in 
your  stakes  and  that  the  method  of 
personal  contact  is  employed  among 
the  addicts?  That  is  the  most  effective 
way.  It  is  going  to  be  by  personal 
contacts  that  quorums  can  win  their 


42 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

addicts  to  abstinence.  Brethren,  it  can 
be  done. 

My  observation  and  my  testimony 
is  that  the  Lord  never  required  us  to 
do  anything  that  we  cannot  do  with 
His  help  if  we  will  exert  ourselves.  A 
wonderful  testimony  of  that  was  given 
by  our  great  President  this  morning, 
when  he  recited  his  first  trip  to  the 
East  to  get  some  money.  He  was  sent 
by  proper  authority  and  went  in  full 
confidence  that  the  Lord  was  guiding 
him,  and  he  relied  upon  the  Lord  and 
upon  the  promise  that  had  been  given 
him,  and  he  succeeded  marvelously 
well. 

Yes,  personal  contact  is  the  method 
and,  wisely  used,  it  can  succeed.  I 
refer  you  to  a  report  that  was  pub- 
lished in  the  December  number  of 
The  Improvement  Era  under  the  head- 
line, "Ogden's  Fine  Work."  The  high 
priests  quorum  of  Ogden  Stake  had 


First  Dag 

thirty-two  addicts,  nearly  all  of  them 
elderly  men.  Most  of  them  had  been 
using  tobacco  all  their  lives.  They 
haven't  any  more  than  a  half  dozen 
left  today.  They  are  working  with 
them  and  are  going  to  make  that  quo- 
rum one  hundred  percent  total  abstain- 
ers. Will  you  do  the  same  in  your 
stakes? 

Now,  brethren,  there  is  a  need  for 
this.  Our  people  are  spending  millions 
for  liquor  and  tobacco  and  those  things 
are  faith-killing.  If  we  want  to  devel- 
op faith,  we  need  to  get  rid  of  those 
factors  that  handicap  us  in  the  exercise 
of  faith.  We  must  set  the  right  exam- 
ple to  you. 

Keep  your  quorums  active,  brethren. 
That  is  the  call  of  the  hour.  A  number 
of  ways  of  doing  this  have  been  indi- 
cated to  you.  The  Lord  bless  you  and 
help  you  to  this  end,  I  pray,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


ELDER  CHARLES  A.  CALLIS 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


Still  stands  Thine  ancient  sacrifice,  an 
humble  and  a  contrite  heart. 

AMONG  the  cardinal  virtues  of  the 
gospel  is  the  praiseworthy  virtue 
of  humility.  To  a  certain  king 
of  Israel,  whose  power  was  waning 
before  the  "pride  that  goeth  before  a 
fall,"  the  prophet  Samuel  said :  "When 
thou  wert  little  in  thine  own  sight,  the 
Lord  blessed  thee."  I  interpret  humil- 
ity as  being  strength.  Humility  ex- 
presses itself  in  lowly  service,  in  vol- 
unteering for  any  service  which  will 
ameliorate  the  conditions,  particularly 
the  spiritual  conditions  of  mankind. 
Humility  does  not  mean  to  grovel,  to 
be  a  sycophant.  Humility  is  inward 
strength  outwardly  expressed  in  good 
works.    Great  souls  attain  to  humility. 

The  Apostle  Peter  said: 

Humble  yourselves  therefore  under  the 
mighty  hand  of  God,  that  he  may  exalt 
you  in  due  time: 

Casting  all  your  care  upon  him;  for  he 
careth  for  you. 

Be  sober,  be  vigilant;  because  your  ad- 
versary the  devil,  as  a  roaring  lion,  walketh 


about,  seeking  whom  he  may  devour.  .  .  . 
(I  Peter  5:6-8) 

Are  the  American  people  great 
enough  to  be  humble?  If  this  nation 
and  all  mankind  had  humbled  them- 
selves beneath  the  mighty  hand  of  God, 
there  would  have  been  no  war.  Hu- 
mility would  have  found  beautiful  ex- 
pression in  noble  deeds. 

Charles  Evan  Hughes  gave  this  defi- 
nition of  Christian  character:  "Faith 
without  credulity,  conviction  without 
bigotry,  charity  without  condescension, 
courage  without  pugnacity,  self-respect 
without  vanity,  humility  without  ob- 
sequiousness, love  of  humanity  without 
sentimentality,  and  meekness  with 
power."  When  Chief  Justice  Charles 
Evan  Hughes  retired  from  his  exalted 
position,  the  Supreme  Court  was  weak- 
ened, and  this  republic  was  made  poorer. 

Consider  the  example  of  Moses.  He 
was  the  great  lawgiver  of  Israel,  filled 
with  courage  and  faith.  The  miracu- 
lous, the  statesmanlike  work  that  he 
accomplished,  the  deeds  that  he  per- 
formed, stamp  him  as  the  foremost 
statesman  of  any  age  of  the  world,  ex- 


ELDER  CHARLES  A.  CALLIS 


43 


cepting  always,  of  course,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Of  a  people  steeped  in 
slavish  bondage  he  made  a  nation.  He 
breathed  into  them,  as  someone  has  said, 
the  immortality  that  made  them  a  great 
nation.  And  yet  he  was  a  meek  man; 
nevertheless  he  was  strong. 

One  time  the  children  of  Israel  com- 
mitted sin,  and  Moses  said  to  them:  "I 
am  going  up  in  the  mount  to  talk  with 
God  and  make  atonement  for  your  sins." 
Oh,  I  love  that  word,  "atonement." 
The  atonement  of  the  Savior — without 
that  there  would  have  been  no  vitality, 
no  purpose  in  any  of  the  principles  of 
the  gospel,  for  it  gives  life  to  every  doc- 
trine of  the  everlasting  gospel.  Listen 
to  this : 

And  Moses  returned  unto  the  Lord,  and 
said,  Oh,  this  people  have  sinned  a  great 
sin,  and  have  made  them  gods  of  gold. 

Yet  now,  if  thou  wilt  forgive  their  sin — ; 
and  if  not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  thy 
book  which  thou  hast  written.  (Exodus 
32:31,  32) 

Unparalleled  love,  the  spirit  of  the 
holy  Priesthood,  humility,  meekness 
with  power,  exemplifying  the  love  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ!  He  didn't  even 
want  to  survive  the  people.  If  they 
were  eliminated,  if  the  punishment  of 
God  destroyed  them,  he,  too,  was  will- 
ing that  his  name,  yea,  his  life,  be  blot- 
ted out  with  the  people  he  loved  aiw> 
led  and  made,  for  he  carried  them  as 
father  carries  his  child.  He  smote  tbr 
rock  out  of  which  gushed  the  watei. 
With  miraculous  power  he  divided  the 
waters  of  the  Red  Sea;  but  as  he  stood 
upon  the  mount,  pleading  with  God  for 
the  Israelites,  he  reached  sublime 
heights;  he  touched  divinity! 

That  is  the  spirit  that  should  charac- 
terize the  holy  Priesthood.  If  we  work 
in  humility,  become  little  in  our  own 
sight,  more  than  we  are  now,  and  seek 
the  good  of  others  I  testify  to  you  that 
there  will  be  added  power  to  our  labors, 


and  sinners  will  be  brought  unto  Him. 
The  Savior  said: 

.  .  .  Whosoever  will  be  great  among 
you,  let  him  be  your  minister; 

And  whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you. 
let  him  be  your  servant.  .  .  .  (Matt.  20: 
26,  27) 

Christ  was  called  the  suffering  ser- 
vant: 

For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave 
his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life.    (John  3:16) 

The  man  who  communed  with  Je- 
hovah, Joseph  Smith,  was  meek  but  had 
great  power.  Enshrined  in  that  power 
was  love  for  his  people  and  for  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  the  West 
was  opened  unto  him,  when  he  saw 
there  a  refuge  for  himself  and  his  peo- 
ple, yet  for  fear  of  drawing  down  upon 
the  people  he  loved  (who  would  be 
temporarily  left  in  Nauvoo)  bitter  per- 
secution, mobocracy,  and  cruel  punish- 
ment, he  voluntarily  relinquished  the 
means  of  escape  and  said:  "I  go  as  a 
lamb  to  the  slaughter.  If  my  life" — 
note  that,  brethren — "if  iny  life  is  of  no 
value  to  my  friends,  it  is  of  no  value 
to  myself." 

That  is  the  yardstick  by  which  we 
i  mould  measure  our  lives:  How  much 
are  we  worth  to  our  fellow  citizens,  to 
the  people  of  the  Church,  to  our  coun- 
try? That  is  the  true  measure,  for  the 
best  of  life  is  expressed  in  service  to 
others. 

God  grant  that  the  American  people 
— that  includes  us — may  rise  to  higher 
eminence  by  clothing  ourselves  with 
humility,  and  humbling  ourselves  under 
the  mighty  hand  of  God.  I  testify  to 
you  that  if  this  nation  and  all  the  world 
would  repent,  as  Ninevah  did,  from  the 
greatest  to  the  least,  and  serve  God,  the 
horrors  of  war  would  soon  disappear. 
This  is  my  testimony,  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

Elder  Sylvester  Q.  Cannon  has  been  away  for  a  little  while  recuperat- 
ing. He  comes  back  feeling  very  much  better,  and  we  should  like  to  hear 
from  him.  We  hope  he  may  at  least  bear  his  testimony  and  add  such  other 
words  as  he  may  care  to  aive.  to  us. 


44 

Saturday,  April  4 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 


ELDER  SYLVESTER  Q.  CANNON 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


IT  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me,  my  breth- 
ren, to  be  here  this  evening,  to  en- 
joy the  spirit  of  these  meetings  in 
this  conference  today.  I  am  impressed 
with  that  spirit.  I  rejoice  with  you  for 
the  information  that  is  given  to  us  and 
the  testimony  that  we  have  received 
regarding  the  work  of  the  Lord,  in 
which  I  have  great  joy  and  satisfaction. 

As  some  of  you  may  know  I  have 
been  "under  the  weather"  and  have 
suffered  trouble  with  high  blood  pres- 
sure. My  doctor  advised  me  some 
time  ago  to  observe  certain  rules  to  en- 
able me  to  enjoy  greater  health  and 
strength.  The  Presidency  were  very 
kind  and  considerate.  They  allowed 
me  to  leave  and  go  to  California.  I  have 
been  there  for  about  six  weeks  re- 
cently, and  I  have  greatly  improved 
in  my  condition.  I  feel  greatly  improved 
now.  I  think  I  ought  to  take  up  my  part 
of  the  work  that  devolves  upon  me  and 
measure  up  to  my  responsibility. 

I  know  the  gospel  is  true.  I  have  a 
testimony  of  the  divinity  of  this  cause. 
I  am  as  sure  of  the  divinity  of  this  work 
as  I  am  that  I  live.  I  desire  so  to  live 
every  day  that  I  will  be  worthy  to 
enjoy  the  blessings  of  the  Lord.  I 
realize  the  fact  that  I  have  received 
many  blessings.  The  First  Presidency 
and  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  have 
been  very  kind.  Many  things  have 
happened  in  which  I  have  received 
many  blessings,  and  advantages.  I  can 
assure  you  that  in  every  way  I  re- 
joice in  these  things,  and  I  am  very 


happy  to  be  in  a  position  to  go  for- 
ward and  do  the  work  that  I  expect 
to  do.  Of  course,  I  will  have  to  exer- 
cise care  for  the  time-being  till  I  re- 
gain my  strength,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
carry  forward  the  work  devolving  upon 
me. 

I  rejoice  in  the  blessings  that  have 
come  to  each  one  of  us  Latter-day 
Saints.  We  have  a  testimony  of  the 
truth  of  this  work.  The  work  is  going 
forward.  I  realize,  of  course,  there  are 
many  people  in  the  world  who  cannot 
see  as  we  see,  and  do  not  appreciate  the 
things  that  we  know.  But  I  want  to 
say  to  you  that  while  we  are  sustain- 
ing the  government  of  the  United  States, 
and  sustaining  all  the  nations  who  are 
endeavoring  to  live  in  righteousness, 
I  am  sure  that  we  have  every  reason  to 
rejoice  in  the  fact  that  there  has  come 
to  us  a  knowledge  and  understanding  of 
these  things.  The  divinity  of  this 
work  is  beyond  comprehension,  if  we 
live  for  it.  So  I  desire  to  testify  to 
you  again,  that  I  am  very  grateful  for 
the  blessings  the  Lord  has  given  me,  and 
the  love  that  my  brethren  have  shown 
me. 

I  testify  to  you  that  it  is  of  great  con- 
cern to  every  Latter-day  Saint  that  he 
or  she  should  live  in  such  a  way  as 
to  be  worthy  to  receive  the  blessings 
of  the  Lord.  I  testify  of  these  things  to 
you,  and  express  my  gratitude  to  the 
Latter-day  Saints,  and  desire  to  work 
with  them  to  promote  righteousness 
and  truth  in  the  earth.  I  do  it  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


The  congregation  then  sang  the  first  two  verses  of  the  hymn,  "Come, 
O  Thou  King  of  Kings,"  (Hymn  Book,  page  209). 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

Brethren:  Our  meeting  tomorrow  is  planned  out,  part  of  it,  by  radio 
time,  which  you  may  know  is  pretty  exact.  The  afternoon  meeting  tomorrow 
is  to  be  your  meeting.  The  meeting  Monday  morning  is  filled,  so  that 
we  have  no  alternative  tonight  but  to  ask  the  brethren  who  are  left  ( there 


ELDER  MARVIN  0.  ASHTON 


45 


are  nine  of  them )  to  be  good  enough  to  let  us  hear  from  them.  We  want 
to  hear  from  all  of  them,  and  that  I  take  it  will  give  them  about  six  minutes 
apiece.  I  am  sorry,  but  I  do  not  know  what  else  to  do  about  it. 

ELDER  MARVIN  O.  ASHTON 

First  Counselor  in  the  Presiding  Bishopric 


President  Clark's  concern  in  the 
short  time  left  and  the  number  of 
us  yet  to  be  heard  from,  reminds 
us  we  must  be  brief.  A  minister  in  his 
efforts  to  impress  his  good  people  with 
the  miraculous  in  nature  observed  in 
his  talk  this  particular  Sunday  that  in 
every  blade  of  grass  there  was  a  ser- 
mon. The  following  Saturday  one  of 
the  boys  of  the  parish  found  the  min- 
ister cutting  his  lawn.  In  greeting  his 
spiritual  adviser  the  boy  exclaimed, 
"Reverend,  I  am  sure  glad  to  see  you 
cutting  your  sermons  short."  I  shall 
make  you  happy  in  making  my  sermon 
short. 

Will  you  please  have  your  thinking 
machinery  shift  gears  into  the  realm  of 
temporal  affairs?  The  temporal  prob- 
lems are  the  responsibilities  of  the  Pre- 
siding Bishopric,  and  to  be  frank  with 
you  we  don't  blush  in  reminding  you 
of  them  from  time  to  time.  In  quoting 
Joseph  Smith,  I  was  interested  in  what 
Brother  Marion  Romney  had  to  say 
about  the  temporal  and  the  spiritual 
things  of  the  Church.  The  Prophet  ob- 
served that  the  man  who  could  make 
an  intelligent  demarkation  would  be 
a  very  wise  man.  Brethren,  in  living 
our  religion,  we  just  can't  get  away 
from  the  temporal  things.  They 
"smack  us  in  the  eye,"  so  to  speak, 
everywhere  we  go,  and  if  we  hope  to 
have  our  thinking  on  terra  flrma,  we've 
got  to  meet  fairly  and  squarely  our 
stewardship.  We  brethren  assembled 
here  tonight  are  the  directors  of  this 
great  Church  corporation,  of  course, 
keeping  in  mind  that  the  bishops  work- 
ing with  us  are  influenced  and  guided, 
if  you  please,  by  our  attitude  and  in- 
structions. Some  people  are  so  con- 
stituted that  even  common  sense  must 
be  reinforced  with  chapter  and  verse. 
For  their  benefit,  here  we  go:  "And 
even  the  bishop,  who  is  a  judge,  and  his 


counselors,  if  they  are  not  faithful  in 
their  stewardship  shall  be  condemned, 
and  others  shall  be  planted  in  their 
stead."  (D.  &  C.  64:40) 

Please  keep  in  mind  that  you  have 
fifteen  hundred  buildings  in  this  Church. 
If  you  put  an  average  value  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars  on  each,  the  minimum 
value  of  Church  property  is  at  least 
thirty  million  dollars.  I  dare  say  your 
cost  of  replacement  would  be  nearer 
one  hundred  million  dollars.  Now 
don't  forget  this  depreciation  business. 
Still  using  the  minimum  figure:  one  per- 
cent depreciation  is  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  per  year;  two  percent  or 
the  figure  used  by  the  government  in 
the  most  substantial  construction  will 
be  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  per 
year.  If  you  depreciate  those  build- 
ings five  percent,  as  the  neglect  some 
buildings  get  will  indicate,  (and  that 
isn't  fiction)  your  depreciation  per  year 
would  be  one  million  five  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars. 

I  ask  you  who  is  the  "watch  dog" 
of  the  treasury?  Is  he  only  that  fellow 
who  writes  out  the  checks?  Is  he  only 
the  one  who  watches  the  gates  of  the 
Church  vaults?  In  a  big  sense  the 
"watch  dogs"  are  those  who  are  the 
custodians  of  our  Church  buildings. 
Don't  forget  it.  "A  stitch  in  time  saves 
nine."  "Trifles  make  perfection,  but 
perfection  is  no  trifle." 

I  brought  over  with  me  today  a  board 
panel  with  some  evidences  of  mistakes 
wired  thereon.  Like  other  sins,  here 
are  displayed  evidences  of  sins  of  omis- 
sion and  sins  of  commission.  Don't 
forget,  one  spark  will  burn  up  a  million 
doll  ars  of  the  hardest  earned  money 
in  the  world.  When  you  take  a  fuse 
plug  and  insert  a  penny  therein,  or  twist 
the  brass  so  it  laps  over  the  contact  in 
the  center,  that  is  a  sin  of  commission. 
Yes,  only  a  little  thing,  but  the  spark 
may  send  smoke  to  the  skies  of  our 


46  GENERAL  C 

Saturday,  April  4 

people's  hard  earned  savings.  Our 
people  take  the  skin  off  their  hands 
in  the  sacrifices  they  make,  and  plain 
carelessness  burns  up  in  a  minute  the 
results  of  such  sacrifices.  That  fuse 
plug  is  so  constructed  as  to  make  for 
you  a  night  watchman  to  guard  your 
property  when  you  are  asleep.  He 
makes  your  absence  from  home  safe 
from  fire.  Yet  in  some  of  these  sins 
of  commission  you  take  a  six  shooter, 
as  it  were,  and  pick  him  off.  Yes,  you 
kill  the  guard  that  protects  your  home. 

We  have  asked  you  to  install  at  a 
cost  of  twenty-one  dollars  a  low  water 
cut-off  in  your  boiler.  Some  of  you 
won't.  We  ask  you  to  test  the  water 
in  your  boilers  to  save  corroding,  but 
you  won't.  Right  while  we  talk,  the 
good  people  of  a  little  ward  who  can't 
dig  down  any  more  will  have  to  raise 
nine  hundred  dollars  to  replace  a  boiler 
because  some  one  blundered  in  a  detail 
we  are  talking  about — a  little  sin  of 
commission.  In  this  boiler  was  inserted 
a  leadlike  substance  as  a  plug  which, 
when  subjected  to  extra  heat,  would 
melt  and  automatically  shut  off  the 
furnace.  What  did  he  do?  He 
plugged  the  hole  with  a  hickory  stick — 
a  sin  of  commission  here.  In  some 
chapels  we  have  found  the  controls 
and  safety  appliances  wired  down,  and 
maybe  two  hundred  little  children  on 
the  floor  just  over  this  danger  of  explo- 
sion, they  and  their  devoted  teachers  in 
oblivion  of  the  "dynamite"  they  are 
hovering  over.  If  you  want  to  get  some 
faith-promoting  stories,  just  follow  us 
around  to  some  of  the  Church  build- 
ings and  see  how  the  Lord  has  His  arm 
around  us.  Keeping  in  mind  our  care- 
lessness, if  the  Lord  didn't  have  His 
arms  around  us,  we'd  have  a  hundred 
fires  a  year. 

We  are  still  talking  about  the  tem- 
poral things.  The  lives  of  our  people 
are  at  stake.  I  don't  care  whether  you 
place  the  Church  property  at  thirty 
million  dollars  or  one  hundred  million 
dollars,  we  are  reminded  in  a  big  way 
that  we  are  the  watch  dogs  of  the 
treasury.  A  custodian  is  either  too  lazy 
or  he  doesn't  know  how  to  clean  the 


First  Day 

ashes  out  of  his  stoker,  and  a  sacrific- 
ing handful  of  people  have  to  dig  down 
in  their  pockets  for  three  hundred  dol- 
lars for  a  new  stoker. 

Another  ward  has  to  meet  a  bill  of 
six  hundred  dollars  for  a  new  boiler 
because  the  custodian  failed  to  go  to  the 
expense  of  ten  cents  worth  of  labor  and 
five  cents  for  a  postage  stamp  in  the 
examination  of  the  water  in  his  boiler. 

A  keeper  of  a  ward's  property  won't 
clean  out  the  old  rags  from  the  base- 
ment and  thirty  thousand  dollars  hon- 
est-to-goodness  toil  and  sacrifice  goes 
up  in  smoke. 

The  skies  of  the  most  beautiful  ham- 
let in  our  country  are  darkened  by  the 
smoke  of  a  fifty  thousand  dollar  beau- 
tiful edifice  and  contents  because  the 
bishop  would  not  take  counsel  as  to 
how  easily  fires  are  started  by  defec- 
tive wiring. 

It  is  like  the  Irishman  who  cut  off 
one  of  his  fingers  in  the  rip  saw  and 
was  showing  his  friends  how  he  did 
it.  While  demonstrating,  he  had  to 
exclaim,  "Gee,  there  goes  another  one." 
Yes,  brethren,  while  we  are  talking, 
there  goes  another  meetinghouse  up  in 
smoke. 

Now  you  stake  presidents,  we  have 
asked  you  to  appoint  a  member  of  your 
high  council  to  be  the  point  of  contact 
between  our  office  and  the  wards  of 
your  stake.  If  you  haven't  done  so, 
please  appoint  him  now  and  give  us  his 
name  and  address. 

I  do  want  to  say  this  before  I  sit 
down:  We  compliment  most  of  you 
men  on  the  way  you  are  teaming  with 
us.  There  are  some  of  you  who  don't. 
We  don't  know  why;  when  we  visit 
your  places,  we  just  don't  understand; 
we  can't  understand  it.  As  Bishop 
Richards  said  today,  climate  doesn't  de- 
termine what  your  stake  is  going  to  be. 
It  is  initiative.  We  keep  crying  and 
crying  to  have  some  of  these  things 
taken  care  of,  and  they  are  not. 

May  the  Lord  bless  us  in  our  respon- 
sibilities, I  ask  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Amen. 


ELDER  ANTOINE  R.  IVINS 


47 


ELDER  ANTOINE  R.  IVINS 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


Brethren,  I  believe  this  is  the  first 
time  I  ever  stood  before  a  con- 
gregation of  this  many  men  that 
didn't  have  a  good  number  of  seventies 
in  it  to  give  it  color.  You  have  seven 
of  us  on  the  stand,  but  we  feel  perfectly 
inadequate. 

I  wish  to  send,  through  you  stake 
presidents,  to  all  those  seventies  out 
there,  our  regrets  that  they  are  not  here 
with  us,  and  our  good  wishes.  We  are 
just  a  bit  worried  about  them.  Brother 
Merrill  has  told  us  what  he  expects 
them  to  do  in  a  quorum  capacity.  They 
have  been  told  that  they  can't  drive  their 
automobiles  to  get  together.  They  are 
scattered  all  over  from  Dan  to  Beer- 
sheba.  There  are  only  about  twenty- 
six  quorums  out  of  one  hundred  which 
are  confined  to  but  one  ward.  Those 
twenty-six  will  be  able  to  hold  their 
council  meetings  and  their  quorum 
meetings  without  much  difficulty.  The 
other  seventy-four  are  scattered  over 
from  two  to  eight  or  ten  wards. 

Now,  we  hope  that  you  brethren  will 
remember  that  when  they  divide  up 
into  groups  and  go  into  their  various 
wards,  that  they  are  still  a  quorum, 
under  stake  jurisdiction  conjointly  with 
that  of  the  First  Council  of  the  Sev- 
enty that  you  will  try  to  retain  your 
interest  in  those  seventies,  and  provide 
ways  that  they  may  occasionally  get 
together  in  full  quorums. 

I  imagine  your  high  priests  will  have 
the  same  difficulty  that  the  seventies 
will  experience.  In  many  of  the  stakes 
where  I  have  visited  I  fear  that  the 
monthly  quorum  meeting  is  going  to  be 
next  to  impossible.  The  leadership 
meeting  does  not  provide  the  oppor- 
tunity for  more  than  a  quorum  council 


meeting.  I  hope  that  some  time,  at  least, 
in  the  quarter,  that  we  can  get  all  of 
our  seventies  together,  so  that  they  will 
still  remember  that  they  are  a  quorum, 
and  that  they  have  a  responsibility  to 
the  stake  organization,  as  well  as  to  the 
First  Council. 

Brethren,  if  you  will  help  us  I  am 
sure  that  you  can  open  up  the  way  for 
them  so  that  they  can  retain  their  in- 
terest in  their  quorum,  and  function 
in  a  quorum  capacity. 

Now,  we  have  another  thing  that 
bothers  us.  We  have  already  noticed, 
in  the  report  for  January  of  this  year, 
that  there  has  been  a  very  definite  and 
distinct  let-down  in  the  missionary  work 
of  the  stakes.  We  hope  that  in  view 
of  this  recent  instruction  that  missionary 
work  may  be  reorganized  so  that  it  can 
carry  on  without  too  much  hindrance 
and  too  much  obstruction.  To  you, 
brethren,  you  stake  presidents,  we  give 
that  responsibility  to  see  that  your 
stake  missions  and  your  seventies'  quo- 
rums function  naturally. 

We  have  faith  in  you.  We  believe 
in  you.  We  know  that  many  of  you, 
if  not  most  of  you,  have  passed  through 
our  organization,  and  we  hope  that  you 
will  be  able  to  retain  an  interest  in  the 
seventies,  that  you  will  help  them,  and 
in  doing  that  help  us. 

I  am  happy  for  this  opportunity  to 
bear  my  testimony.  I  feel  that  we  are 
in  the  hands  of  the  Lord,  and  I  feel  that 
regardless  of  the  obstacles  that  may 
come  our  way,  this  great  work  will  go 
forward.  I  believe  there  is  nothing 
under  heaven  that  can  interrupt  its 
progress,  although  we  may  meet  serious 
difficulties  at  times. 

God  bless  you.  Amen. 


ELDER  CLIFFORD  E.  YOUNG 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 

7-1   great  deal  has  been  said  in  this 

£— I  conference  about  our  interest  in 
■*>  J-  the  boys  who  are  in  the  service, 
and  I  am  sure  it  is  opportune.  There 
are  two  things,  however,  my  brethren, 


that  I  would  like  to  suggest  here.  I  can 
only  suggest  them,  because  of  the  lack 
of  time. 

Heretofore  we  have  taken  a  pride 
in  our  rural,  peaceful  communities,  and 


48 

Saturday.  April  4 

with  justification  we  have  talked  of  our 
culture  and  refinement — a  culture  de- 
veloped through  faith  in  God  and  a  de- 
votion to  high  purposes.  The  Church 
has  had  a  refining  influence  on  all  who 
have  lived  up  to  its  teachings  and  par- 
ticipated in  the  strength  of  its  organiza- 
tion. 

Now  a  great  transition  is  taking 
place.  Our  boys  are  having  to  leave 
the  influences  of  their  youth,  and  are 
being  transplanted  into  a  life  that  has 
for  its  goal,  not  peace,  but  war;  not  the 
refining  influences  of  the  gospel,  but  the 
hatreds,  and  coarseness  that  can  only 
come  from  the  cruelest  war  of  all  time. 
Then,  too,  we  are  witnessing  an  indus- 
trial transition  that  is  fast  changing  our 
heretofore  pastoral  communities  into 
active  humming  commercial  centers. 
These  new  enterprises  are  also  bringing 
an  altogether  different  influence  into 
the  lives  of  our  youth. 

These  changes  should  give  all  of  us 
great  concern  for  we  have  never  had 
to  meet  these  influences  before,  but 
this  is  only  part  of  the  problem.  We 
cannot  picture  what  the  transaction  will 
be  when  the  war  is  over,  and  our  boys 
return  from  the  army,  and  from  the 
mills  and  factories,  back  to  the  farms, 
where  returns  for  their  labor  may  not 
be  very  remunerative — and  where 
many  of  them  will  find  no  work  at  all. 

Lack  of  time  will  only  permit  the 
suggesting  of  the  problems.  We,  who 
have  the  responsibility  of  the  directing 
of  Priesthood  activities  of  the  Church, 
need  to  be  thinking  of  this.  It  will  re- 
quire all  of  the  ingenuity  and  organiza- 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Dag 

tion  at  our  command  to  meet  these 
problems.  May  we  keep  in  touch  with 
our  boys  and  help  them  in  their  think- 
ing and  in  the  adjustments  that  are  to 
come. 

One  other  thing,  and  that  is  this :  We 
are  already  beginning  to  feel  the  ani- 
mosities and  the  hatreds  that  are  being 
engendered  because  of  the  war.  Presi- 
dent Clark  warned  us  of  this  a  long  time 
ago,  and  we  are  beginning  now  to  see 
and  feel  it,  and  we  are  feeling  it  with 
.  our  own  people.  We  have  in  our  midst 
people  who  belong  to  the  Church,  who 
have  come  from  foreign  lands,  people 
who  have  sacrificed,  and  whose  faith  is 
just  as  firm  as  those  of  us  who  were 
born  and  reared  in  this  land,  and  yet 
they  are  becoming  the  victims  of  these 
hatreds.  May  we  be  cautious  about 
this,  and  may  we  use  all  the  influence 
we  have  to  preserve  the  love  of  the 
gospel  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and 
to  caution  them  that  the  feelings  of  our 
Saints,  who  are  the  victims  of  these 
unfortunate  circumstances,  are  tender, 
and  that  they  should  be  safeguarded 
against  these  hatreds. 

May  we  always  remember  that  there 
is  a  difference  between  sin  and  the  sin- 
ner. If  we  can  do  that,  it  will  help  a 
lot.  There  isn't  a  stake  of  Zion  that 
isn't  feeling  this  thing,  and  as  this  war 
continues,  and  the  casualties  begin  to 
come  in,  this  spirit  is  going  to  become 
intensified,  and  the  problem  is  going  to 
become  acute. 

May  God  help  us,  that  we  may  not 
fail  in  our  responsibilities,  I  pray,  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


ELDER  JOSEPH  L.  WIRTHLIN 

Second  Counselor  in  the  Presiding  Bishopric 


I  looked  into  your  faces  today, 
brethren,  the  question  occurred 
to  me,  "I  wonder  what  it  is  that 
motivates  these  men  to  render  such  a 
generous,  splendid  service?" 

I  noted  that  some  of  you  have  come 
as  far  as  two  thousand  five  hundred 
miles  to  attend  this  conference,  leaving 
your  families  and  businesses.  The 
spirit  that  has  motivated  you  to  attend 
this  conference  and  to  carry  on  in  the 


work  of  the  Lord  that  has  been  assigned 
to  you,  is  the  same  spirit  which  has 
built  up  the  Church  in  these,  the  last 
days — the  spirit  of  testimony. 

In  considering  our  achievements  in 
the  valleys  of  these  mountains,  I  always 
think  of  our  pioneer  fathers  and  the 
pioneer  leadership  who  were  willing  to 
sacrifice  life  itself  and  all  they  pos- 
sessed for  the  gospel's  sake.  And  why 
were  they  willing  to  do  it?   Because  in 


ELDER  JOSEPH  L.  WIRTHLIN 


49 


the  heart  of  each  and  every  one  of  them 
a  testimony  burned  that  God  lives,  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  and  that  Joseph 
Smith  is  a  prophet  of  God  and  all  of 
those  who  succeeded  Joseph  Smith  are 
prophets  and  apostles  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  great  spirit  of  testimony 
is  the  power'  that  stimulates  all  of  us 
to  serve  in  this  great  cause. 

Some  few  months  ago  I  had  the  priv- 
ilege of  reading  a  diary  of  one  of  our 
pioneer  brethren,  and  he  tells  how  he 
first  heard  the  gospel  in  Canada,  and 
of  the  great  desire  that  burned  in  his 
heart  to  meet  the  leadership  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  long  trip  made  from 
Canada  to  Nauvoo. 

After  being  among  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  and  becoming  acquainted  with 
the  people,  as  he  was  taking  leave  of 
them  to  return  to  Canada,  he  said:  "I 
turned  and  looked  back  and  wept,  for 
my  heart  was  with  the  Saints;  and  I 
said,  'I'll  soon  see  you  again.'  "  As  he 
crossed  the  wide  prairie,  very  thinly 
settled,  he  would  sit  down  and  rest, 
singing  the  hymn  "Hail  to  the  Prophet 
Ascending  to  Heaven."  "I  would  then 
get  up  and  go  on  my  way,  rejoicing." 

He  was  convinced  that  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Church  was  in  the  hands  of 
inspired  men  and  those  who  embraced 
the  gospel  were  indeed  His  Saints. 
He  then  returned  to  Canada,  gathering 
up  his  few  belongings,  and  with  his 
family,  made  the  long  trek  back  to 
Nauvoo,  just  in  time  to  suffer  many  of 
the  tribulations  and  hardships  of  the 
Saints  as  they  were  driven  across  the 
Mississippi  River  on  the  ice  and  onto 
the  bleak  plains  of  Iowa. 

Arriving  in  the  valleys  of  the  moun- 
tains, he  immediately  erected  a  log 
home  for  his  family.  With  his  broth- 
ers, he  built  saw  mills  and  grist  mills, 
cultivated  some  land,  indicating  in  his 
diary  that  he  felt  rather  prosperous. 

But  "soldiers  of  the  cross"  in  his  day 
were  minute  men,  and  in  1857  he  was 
called  by  the  First  Presidency  to  return 
to  the  Eastern  States  Mission  with  a 
handcart  company  of  missionaries.  He 
spent  one  year  in  the  missionary  service 
when  word  came  that  Johnston's  army 
was  on  its  way  to  Utah.   Shortly  there- 


after, the  First  Presidency  called  the 
missionaries  home. 

The  army  had  preceded  the  arrival 
of  the  missionaries,  and  their  families 
had  moved  to  the  south.  This  good 
brother  found  that  his  farm  had  gone 
to  weeds,  and  his  mill  was  in  need  of 
repair. 

His  family  returned  from  the  south; 
and,  again  in  the  words  of  this  pioneer: 

I  went  to  work  again  in  good  spirits  to 
make  home  pleasant.  I  had  plenty  of 
house  room  and  had  all  my  family  under 
one  roof.  We  ate  at  one  table  and  had 
plenty  to  eat.  This  was  the  happiest  time 
of  my  life,  for  all  was  peace  and  good 
feeling. 

After  three  years  of  hard  work,  this 
brother  found  himself  in  good  circum- 
stances financially,  saying  that  he  cal- 
culated he  was  worth  about  $10,000. 
But  another  call  came  from  the  First 
Presidency — this  time  to  dispose  of 
his  property  and  surplus  livestock,  be- 
ing requested  to  take  a  few  head  of 
livestock,  some  furniture,  and  with  his 
family  make  the  long  trek  to  the  land 
of  Dixie  and  assist  in  establishing  com- 
munities there. 

He  said,  "I  scratched  my  head;  .  .  . 
thought;  and  said,  'All  right.'  "  Some- 
thing in  the  heart  of  this  man  bore  wit- 
ness to  the  fact  that  the  men  who  had 
called  him  to  make  the  long,  arduous 
journey  to  southern  Utah  were  servants 
of  God;  and  with  that  testimony  burn- 
ing in  his  heart,  he  could  not  refuse  the 
call. 

To  make  the  story  short,  this  grand 
character  went  to  southern  Utah.  He 
assisted  in  the  erection  of  the  St.  George 
Temple.  He  ran  mills  in  the  mountains 
and  filled  every  assignment  given  to 
him,  with  willingness.  The  remainder 
of  his  life  was  spent  in  hardship.  He 
passed  through  the  trial  of  burying  sev- 
eral of  his  children  in  the  sands  of 
southern  Utah.  But  not  once  in  his 
diary  did  I  discover  any  feeling  or  word 
of  complaint,  only  expressions  of  grati- 
tude for  the  privilege  of  serving  in  the 
cause  of  the  Master,  grateful  for  the 
testimony  that  burned  in  his  heart. 

I  am  sure,  brethren,  that  the  same 


V 


50 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4 

spirit  of  testimony  exists  throughout  the 
Church  today.  This  is  the  spirit  that 
is  in  your  hearts.  As  long  as  that  spirit 
endures  within  us,  God  will  bless  us, 
He  will  sustain  us,  and  this  work  will 
roll  on  to  its  final  destiny  and  objective, 
which  is  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Jesus 


First  Day 

Christ  to  all  people,  that  the  world  will 
be  prepared  for  the  second  coming  of 
the  King  of  Kings,  which  event  I  pray 
will  soon  come  to  pass  that  we  again 
shall  know  peace,  harmony,  and  good 
will  among  men,  which  I  pray  for  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


ELDER  RICHARD  L.  EVANS 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


I am  almost  tempted  to  say  that  the 
short  talks  are  better  than  the  long 
ones.    I  don't  know  whether  I  dare 
say  it  or  not. 

I  was  interested  this  morning  in  hear- 
ing Brother  Thomas  E.  McKay  report 
conditions  in  the  European  Missions, 
and  particularly  was  I  interested  in 
hearing  that  the  local  missionaries  in 
Great  Britain  had  reported  sixty  bap- 
tisms. You  presidents  of  stakes  each 
has  a  mission  in  your  stake.  In  spite 
of  the  intensive  activity  of  this  day,  and 
some  shortage  of  personnel,  I  am  sure 
that  if  the  missionaries  of  England,  in 
the  conditions  in  which  they  find  them- 
selves after  this  length  of  time,  can  do 
this  kind  of  work,  we  can  ably  man  and 
conduct  our  stake  missions.  Scattered 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  British  Mission  there  are  not  to  be 
found  as  many  members  of  the  Church 
as  there  are  in  many  of  our  stakes,  and 
their  resources  and  opportunities  can- 
not compare  with  ours — and  yet  they 
are  going  forward.  We  do  appreciate 
the  cooperation  we  have  received  from 
you  stake  presidents  and  we  ask  you  for 
a  continuance  of  this  cooperation  in 
this  highly  important  obligation  which 
the  Lord  has  placed  upon  us,  and  which 
should  have  yet  greater  emphasis  and 
attention. 

The  radio  mail  brings  in  a  good  deal 
of  interesting  comment  from  many  thou- 
sands of  people.  One  listener  sent  in 
a  clipping  from  The  Christian  Advo- 
cate, three  or  four  days  ago.  The 
Christian  Advocate,  according  to  its 
own  masthead,  is  the  official  magazine 
of  Methodism.  This  is  the  opening 
sentence  of  the  clipping: 

If  the  prophets  had  kept  out  of  politics, 


they  would  never  have  gotten  into  the  Old 
Testament. 

It  struck  me  rather  forcibly,  and  also 
the  thought  struck  me  that  if  this  had 
appeared  in  our  own  publications 
someone  would  have  criticized  it  as 
"politics,"  but  since  it  appeared  in  a 
Methodist  publication  I  suppose  it  is  all 
right  to  present  it  here  without 
hearing  it  derided  as  "politics."  (Laugh- 
ter) Seriously,  I  believe  the  time  is 
opportune  to  leave  just  this  thought,  / 
since  we  are  not  now  in  the  midst  of 
any  political  campaign,  since  we  face 
no  immediate  election,  and  since  the 
heat  of  such  things  is  not  with  us  at 
the  moment: 

As  I  looked  back  to  those  prophets 
who  would  never  have  gotten  into  the 
Old  Testament  if  they  had  kept  out  of 
"politics,"  I  suddenly  became  aware 
that  the  Philistines  certainly  didn't  like 
the  "politics"  of  the  Israelites;  I  am  sure 
that  the  Pharaohs  didn't  like  the  "poli- 
tics" of  Moses  when  he  led  the  children 
of  Israel  out  of  bondage.  I  am  equally 
sure  that  Saul  didn't  like  the  "politics" 
of  Samuel  when,  at  the  Lord's  com- 
mand, he  anointed  David  king;  and  I 
am  sure  that  the  captains  and  kings 
didn't  like  the  "politics"  of  Jeremiah, 
or  any  of  the  other  prophets  of  God. 

But  this  fact  is  fundamental:  The 
principles  of  religion  enter  into  every 
activity  of  life.  Should  the  activities 
of  politics  extend  themselves  into  every 
activity  of  life,  we  must  be  increasingly 
careful  to  weigh  every  issue  of  politics 
according  to  principle,  and  not  accord- 
ing to  politics,  if  you  please.  I  am  sure 
that  politics  were  attributed  to  the  Pres- 
ident of  this  Church,  by  many,  when 
he  took  his  stand,  courageous  and  out- 


ELDER  RICHARD  L.  EVANS 


51 


spoken,  on  the  prohibition  question,  for 
example.  Call  it  politics  if  you  wish. 
The  principle  is  there  and  always  will 
be,  and  some  day  his  stand  will  be  vin- 
dicated. It  has  been  already  in  the 
minds  of  thinking  and  honest  men. 

I  have  been  reading  recently  the  last 
twenty  sermons  of  Pastor  Martin  Nie- 
moller,  whose  unfortunate  country 
could  no  longer  tolerate  his  preaching. 
In  his  next  to  last  sermon  is  this  com- 
ment: 

We  are  being  accosted  on  all  sides  by 
statesmen,  by  the  man  on  the  street,  who 
tells  us:  "Do  not  speak  so  loudly  or  you 
will  land  in  prison.  Pray  do  not  speak 
so  plainly;  surely  you  can  say  all  that  in 
a  more  obscure  fashion."  But,  brothers  and 
sisters,  we  are  not  allowed  to  put  our 
bushel  under  a  basket. 

One  more  sermon  after  that,  and 
Martin  Niemoller  no  more  ascended  to 
his  pulpit,  and  I  think  he  has  never  been 
heard  from  since. 

A  quotation  from  Jeremiah  will  be  of 
interest  to  all  who  have  the  sacred 
trust  of  leadership  in  the  wards  and 
stakes  and  missions  of  this  Church: 

Thus  saith  the  Lord;  Stand  in  the  court 


of  the  Lord's  house,  and  speak  unto  all  the 
cities  of  Judah,  ...  all  the  words  that  I 
command  thee  to  speak  unto  them;  diminish 
not  a  word.  (Jeremiah  26:2) 

As  we  face  the  issues  of  the  future, 
my  brethren,  may  we,  in  the  leadership 
of  our  people  here  at  headquarters,  and 
you  in  your  stakes,  weigh  all  the  issues 
according  to  principle.  There  comes  a 
time  in  the  career  of  every  man  when 
he  must  speak  according  to  the  truth  or 
break  the  trust  of  his  office,  and  when 
the  Presidency  of  the  Church,  and  their 
associates  in  the  general  councils  of  the 
Church,  unitedly  take  a  stand  on  any 
principle,  let  us  remember  the  prophets 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  meet  the 
issues  according  to  their  merit  as  prin- 
ciples, and  on  no  other  consideration. 

I  leave  you  my  testimony  of  my 
gratitude  to  my  Father  in  heaven  for 
the  Presidency  of  this  Church,  and  those 
who  are  associated  with  them;  for  the 
restoration  of  the  gospel,  and  all  that 
it  means.  This  is  the  work  of  the  Lord, 
and  it  will  go  forward  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  His  purposes,  regardless 
of  the  schemes  of  men  and  the  confused 
issues  of  the  day.  God  be  with  you. 
Amen. 


ELDER  RUFUS  K.  HARDY 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


MY  brethren,  I  rejoice  greatly  at 
this  opportunity  of  saying  a  few 
words  and  being  in  your  midst. 
I  sense  and  understand  somehow — 
I  think  I  am  correct — that  there  are  just 
about  one  hundred  forty-one  spiritual 
gardens  which  we  here  tonight  have  to 
take  care  of  after  we  leave  this  meeting, 
and  I  am  sure  that  we  all  feel  that  we 
can  go  back  to  these  places,  having 
drawn  from  that  great  reservoir  which 
has  been  given  to  us  here,  and  give 
that  heavenly  and  spiritual  food  to 
those  people  who  live  and  who  abide 
in  the  vicinity  in  which  we  operate. 

You  know,  I  have  been  struck  with 
this  thought,  that  in  all  of  the  history 
of  religion,  in  all  of  the  Bible  stories  and 
all  the  stories  of  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
God's  advent  among  men  commenced 
with  small  beginnings.  As  we  have  been 


chatting  here  tonight,  talking  about  this 
great  and  marvelous  and  wonderful 
man  Moses,  just  for  a  moment  let  your 
mind  dwell  on  that  man,  if  you  like — 
the  cradle;  then  the  leaving  of  his  coun- 
try because  of  what  he  had  done;  then, 
as  I  remember  it,  the  Bible  says  that 
Moses,  watching  the  flocks  of  Jethro, 
at  the  back  of  the  desert  near  Mount 
Sinai,  saw  this  peculiar  burning  bush, 
which  was  not  consumed,  and  the  voice 
said  to  him,  as  he  drew  near  it:  "Moses, 
Moses,"  and  he  said:  "Here  am  I,  God." 
And  then  think  of  the  length  of  time  it 
took  the  Lord  God  Almighty  to  prevail 
on  him  to  do  the  thing  that  he  should 
do;  his  excuses  of  his  speech,  of  his 
tongue;  and  finally,  I  think,  as  it  occurs 
to  me,  more  in  desperation  than  any- 
thing else,  God  said  to  him:  "What 
have  you  got  in  your  hand?"  "A  staff." 


52 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday.  April  4 

"Throw  it  down,"  and  it  turned  into 
a  serpent,  and  Moses  turned  to  flee. 
God  said  to  him:  "Pick  it  up  by  the 
tail,"  and  he  did. 

Even  after  that  he  said:  "I  can't  do 
it.  I  can't  tell  these  people.  They 
won't  believe  me."  And  God  said  to 
him:  "Go;  but  I  want  to  say  to  you, 
Moses,  that  Pharaoh  will  not  let  your 
people  go,  not  by  a — "  I  was  going 
to  say  a  jugful,  but  God  said,  "Not  by  a 
great  handful."  But  he  did,  and  he 
accomplished  the  purposes  which  God 


First  Dag 

gave  him  to  do.  Why?  Because  with- 
in him  dwelt  that  which  dwells  within 
us,  this  marvelous  Melchizedek  Priest- 
hood.  That  is  the  reason. 

Now,  I  do  not  pray  for  that  Priest- 
hood, but  I  do  pray  that  we  may  func- 
tion and  operate  under  the  great  call 
and  the  noble  assignment  which  have 
been  given  to  us,  in  such  a  way  that 
we  may  ever  honor  the  Priesthood,  be 
proud  of  our  acts,  and  God  may  smile 
upon  that  which  we  do,  and  I  do  that  in 
the  name  of  Jesus,  Amen. 


ELDER  JOHN  H.  TAYLOR 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


Last  week  I  received  a  letter  from 
a  man  in  Washington  who  wanted 
to  know  something  about  the  gos- 
pel, or  at  least  receive  some  tracts. 
His  card  was  a  very  ordinary  card.  It 
only  had  his  initials  on  it,  and  it  wasn't 
worded  very  courteously,  and  so  my 
first  impression  was  that  the  man  was 
perhaps  ashamed  to  have  mail  come  to 
him  which  had  the  Mormon  Church 
stamp  on  it.  Perhaps  he  was  only  fool- 
ing, trying  to  see  what  kind  of  liter- 
ature or  what  kind  of  letter  we  would 
write  to  him.  So  because  of  all  these 
circumstances  I  was  rather  inclined  to 
write  the  way  I  felt  at  that  moment, 
then  I  thought  of  two  instances  which 
helped  me  decide  just  what  I  ought  to 
,do  in  regard  to  the  matter,  because  it 
is  always  what  we  have  learned  in  the 
past  that  helps  us  in  the  present. 

I  remember  being,. in  a  missionary 
group  in  one  of  the  missions  where  I 
was  laboring.  A  very  humble  mission- 
ary was  there,  and  not  understanding 
a  very  fundamental,  easy  question  that 
had  to  do  with  the  Church,  he  got  up 
and  asked  the  meaning  of  this  Church 
doctrine.  The  brother  who  was  pre- 
siding thought  it  was  so  ordinary  that 
even  the  most  dumb  should  know  the 
answer,  and  he  answered  him  rather 
sharply.  From  that  time  on  the  mis- 
sionary did  not  ask  another  question, 
and  he  went  his  way  alone. 

Last  week  I  heard  the  story  of  a 
man  who  walked  into  the  Bureau  of 


Information,  and  speaking  to  one  of 
the  guides,  said,  in  a  friendly  way: 
"Well,  here  I  am  again."  The  guide, 
not  recognizing  him,  the  man  made 
the  following  explanation: 

About  a  year  and  a  half  ago  I  came  to 
the  Bureau  of  Information,  and  was  taken 
through  the  grounds.  The  guide  was  very 
courteous  and  kind.  You  were  that  guide 
and  because  you  wouldn't  take  any  tips 
or  any  remuneration  for  the  kind  way  that 
you  treated  us,  I  decided  that  the  least  thing 
I  could  do  was  to  buy  a  Book  of  Mormon. 
So  I  bought  one  and  took  it  home  with  me. 
I  put  it  into  my  library,  and  one  day  my 
son  came  to  me  and  said:  "Father,  I  notice 
you  have  a  Book  of  Mormon  in  the  library. 
Would  you  mind  if  I  read  it?"  I  answered, 
"Why,  no,  go  ahead." 

So  the  boy  took  it  down  and  read 
the  Book  of  Mormon  and  the  father 
said: 

He  not  only  read  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
but  he  read  a  lot  of  other  books  that  he  had 
found  concerning  your  Church.  Later  he 
joined  your  Church  and  then  found  a  young 
lady  whom  he  loved  and  wanted  to  marry. 
She  wasn't  in  the  Church,  so  he  preached 
the  gospel  to  her,  and  after  a  while  she 
came  into  the  Church.  This  was  a  year 
and  a  half  ago.  Do  you  know  what  I  am 
doing  today?  I  am  just  staying  inside  of 
this  Bureau  of  Information  because  that 
son  of  mine,  and  the  young  girl  whom  he 
had  met  down  in  California,  are  over  in 
the  temple  getting  married.  I  can't  go  there 
because  I  don't  belong  to  the  Church.  That 
is  what  you  did  to  my  family. 

As  I  thought  of  these  things,  I  knew 
how  the  letter  should  be  answered. 


ELDER  JOHN  H.  TAYLOR  S3 


Every  once  in  a  while  we  get  rather 
discouraged  because  we  can't  see  that 
people  are  reacting  in  a  way  that  will 
result  in  good,  and  we  think  our  efforts 
are  all  lost;  but  I  presume  it  is  just 
like  the  word  that  goes  out  on  the  air. 
Before  we  had  receiving  sets,  we  were 
insensible  to  radio  impulses,  and  they 
passed  us  by.  I  suppose  when  we  do  an 
act  of  kindness,  when  we  do  something 
for  somebody  else,  which  seems  to  be 
lost,  that  all  those  fine,  good  things — the 
kindness  and  the  mercy  and  the  good 
will  and  the  forgiveness  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  things  that  help  men  and 
women  to  be  better — keep  going  until 
some  day  they  reach  somebody  who 
has  the  proper  receiving  set,  and  all 
the  truths  and  all  the  worthwhile  things 
that  have  been  said  by  you,  or  by  any- 


one else,  reach  somebody's  heart,  just 
as  the  words  of  the  guide's  message 
reached  the  son's  heart,  although  the 
father  did  not  quite  understand. 

May  the  Lord  bless  us  and  guide  us 
as  we  live  our  lives.  May  we  be  kind 
and  thoughtful  of  other  men  and  wom- 
en, and  even  though  things  do  not  seem 
to  come  back  to  us,  or  we  cannot  see 
the  results  of  them,  may  we  be  assured 
that  in  some  place,  somewhere,  they 
are  being  registered  on  sombody's 
heart,  either  in  our  wards  or  our  stakes 
or  out  in  the  world,  and  then  shall  we 
find  joy  and  happiness  because  of  the 
good  things  which  we  have  done. 

May  the  Lord  bless  us,  I  pray,  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  Redeemer. 
Amen. 


ELDER  NICHOLAS  G,  SMITH 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  brethren,  I  am  grateful  to  my 
heavenly  Father  for  this  Church, 
and  for  the  opportunity  that  has 
been  mine  to  visit  in  distant  parts  of 
the  world,  to  meet  different  races  and 
peoples,  to  learn  that  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  affects  them  all  exactly  the 
same  way. 

I  know  the  gospel  is  true.  I  realize 
that  each  and  every  one  of  you,  who 


are  watchmen  on  the  tower,  know  that 
fact. 

I  pray  that  our  Heavenly  Father  will 
bless  us  all,  that  in  our  lives  we  may 
evidence  to  Him  that  we  know  this 
truth. 

May  peace  be  in  our  hearts  and 
homes  and  amongst  the  people  over 
whom  we  preside,  is  my  prayer,  in  Jesus' 
name,  Amen. 


ELDER  SAMUEL  O.  BENNION 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


My  brethren,  I  am  very  happy  to 
be  in  your  midst  tonight,  and 
during  the  day,  and  to  partake 
of  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  that  I  find  so 
abundantly  among  us. 

I  hope  none  of  us  overlooked  the 
fine  testimony  that  we  heard  from  Pres- 
ident Grant  this  morning,  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  that  I  have  listened  to 
in  some  time. 

I  haven't  thought  of  anything  to  say, 
except  this,  brethren :  I  trust  that  when 
we  return  to  our  homes  again,  that  we 
will  remember  our  Father  s  work,  that 
we  will  be  about  our  Father's  business, 
that  we  will  encourage  the  leadership 


of  the  quorums  of  the  Priesthood  to 
meet  together  and  to  appoint  members 
of  the  quorums  to  visit  the  inactive  of 
the  members  of  the  Priesthood  who  do 
not  attend  to  their  Church  obligations. 
They  are  good  men,  and  if  only  we  can 
just  get  them  to  become  active  in  their 
work  we  would  be  doing  a  fine  and  good 
service.  Those  men  are  in  our  midst  and 
many  are  fine  characters  and  are  at 
work  in  some  position  or  another. 
Many  hold  positions  of  trust  that  are 
worth  while,  so  far  as  our  civic  and 
business  life  are  concerned.  If  we 
could  just  get  these  men  to  participate 


54 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  April  4  t 

with  us  I  think  it  would  be  a  marvelous 
thing. 

I  am  happy  to  bear  my  testimony  that 
I  know,  without  a  doubt,  that  this  is  the 
work  of  God;  that  we  are  engaged  in 
the  building  up  of  the  Church  and  king- 
dom of  God  on  earth;  that  the  people 
in  this  Church  are  the  ones  who  hold 
the  confirmed  gift  and  power  of  the 


First  Day 

Holy  Ghost,  and  that  you  men,  as  lead- 
ers, all  of  us  here,  have  the  rights  and 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Priesthood  which  can- 
not be  found  elsewhere  in  this  world, 
only  in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints.  I  am  happy  and 
thankful  to  be  numbered  among  you. 

I  pray  the  Lord  to  bless  us,  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

Our  next  and  concluding  speaker  will  be  President  Oscar  A.  Kirkham, 
of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy.  This,  I  believe,  is  his  first  Conference, 
and  we  will  give  him  ten  minutes. 


ELDER  OSCAR  A.  KIRKHAM 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


I humbly  pray  that  the  Lord  will  bless 
me  as  I  attempt  to  express  my  appre- 
ciation for  the  high  and  holy  calling 
which  He  has  brought  into  my  life.  It 
may  be  surprising  to  you  at  this  moment 
that  I  see  my  father's  face  and  my 
mother's  face.  May  God  help  me  to 
be  humble  and  worthy  of  the  joy  which 
might  be  theirs. 

I  rejoice  greatly  in  the  more  inti- 
mate association  with  the  choicest  group 
of  men  that  I  have  ever  known  in  my 
life;  and  in  this  country,  in  most  of 
its  states,  and  in  many  countries  of 
Europe,  through  the  kindness  of  the 
Lord,  I  have  had  conferences  and  as- 
sociation with  our  national  and  inter- 
national great  men.  I  was  deeply  im- 
pressed when  I  came  to  this  calling.  The 
word  of  it  came  to  me  in  New  York. 
I  was  in  East  Orange,  attending  serv- 
ice. I  came  back  to  New  York,  to  the 
hotel,  opened  a  telegram  from  my  wife, 
which  said:  "Unanimously  sustained 
as  one  of  the  General  Authorities  to- 
day. I  wish  you  were  home."  I  con- 
fess to  you — it  may  have  been  my 
weariness — but  the  idea  didn't  strike 
me  that  it  was  myself.  I  didn't  quite 
get  it  clear.  I  went  and  got  a  copy  of 
the  New  York  Times,  went  upstairs 
to  my  bed,  turned  on  the  night  lamp 


and  started  to  read.  I  said:  "I  be- 
lieve I  will  read  that  telegram  again." 
I  read  it  again,  and  this  time  I  realized 
what  had  happened.  Then  I  did  not 
read,  nor  did  I  sleep. 

When  the  First  Presidency  of  the 
Church  set  me  apart,  I  asked  President 
Grant  if  he  had  any  official  word  for 
me,  any  instruction.  He  said:  "Yes, 
Oscar.  Express  yourself  freely  in 
council.  Say  what  you  have  to  say, 
freely,  but  when  a  decision  is  made, 
line  up."  I  will  tell  you  that  those  are 
words  of  wisdom.  In  my  opinion  that 
is  democracy  in  its  very  essence. 

The  First  Presidency  have  asked  me 
to  keep  my  connections  with  the  Boy 
Scout  program.  I  shall  attempt  to 
do  that.  My  special ,  calling  in  the 
Church  is  with  the  Council  of  Seventy. 
I  have  learned  to  love  these  brethren 
already,  and  appreciate  greatly  their 
intimate  association.  I  humbly  pray 
that  God  will  help  me  to  be  a  good 
Scout,  a  good  missionary. 

Before  you  again  I  express  my  hum- 
ble appreciation.  May  God  magnify 
me  for  the  task.  May  I  ever  enjoy 
your  sympathy  and  your  blessing,  as  I 
am  called  to  labor  with  you,  I  humbly 
pray,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR.  55 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

I  want  to  thank  the  brethren  for  their  kindly  cooperation  in  getting 
through  as  we  have. 

Brother  Kirkham's  talk  brought  home  to  me  what  I  think  in  some 
respects  is  one  of  the  most  significant  things  that  I  have  noticed  since  I 
came  into  a  position  of  responsibility  in  the  Church.  I  have  been  present 
when  we  have  called  men  in  and  told  them  that  we  would  like  to  have 
them  go  and  preside  over  a  mission.  I  have  seen  them  color  and  pallor  and 
swallow  and  say,  "I  will  go."  The  loyalty  and  devotion  of  the  people  of 
this  Church  is  beyond  all  calculation. 

The  principle  which  Brother  Grant  expressed  to  Brother  Kirkham 
is  fundamental  in  all  our  dealings,  and  we  must  never  lose  sight  of  it, 
brethren:  Express  ourselves  freely  in  the  council  chamber  while  matters 
are  under  discussion,  and  then  when  they  are  decided,  line  up  and  carry 
on.  If  we  ever  get,  in  this  Church,  to  a  place  where  our  loyalty  is  merely 
lip  service,  then  we  shall  be  in  a  serious  condition.  I  know  that  the  Lord 
will  move  the  lip-servers  out  of  their  places. 

Tomorrow  morning,  brethren,  as  we  have  already  told  you,  we  are  to 
meet  in  the  temple.  We  ask  you  to  come  fasting.  You  will  enter  the 
temple  enclosure  in  the  regular  way  as  if  you  were  going  into  the  temple, 
through  that  little  gate  by  the  little  house  over  on  Main  Street.  The 
brethren  will  be  there  in  the  morning  to  welcome  you  at  9:20,  when  the 
gate  will  be  opened.  You  will  enter  the  temple  itself  by  the  southwest 
door.  There  will  be  brethren  there  who  will  show  you  how  to  get  to  the 
upper  floor. 

I  do  not  speak  of  this  very  often,  I  do  not  like  to,  but  I  am  getting 
to  the  age  where  stairs  are  a  bit  troublesome.  Now  there  may  be  some 
of  you  also  to  whom  climbing  stairs  is  a  little  difficult  and  you  would  not 
do  it  just  out  of  choice.  To  those  of  you  who  are  like  myself,  I  would  say 
when  you  get  inside  the  west  door  of  the  Temple  if  you  will  turn  immedi- 
ately to  your  left  you  will  come  to  an  elevator.  A  man  will  be  on  the 
elevator  who  will  take  you  up  to  the  fifth  floor.  I  would  like  to  urge  those 
of  you  who  do  want  to  take  the  elevator  to  come  early,  because  the 
elevator  is  small,  carries  only  a  few  at  a  time,  and  it  will  therefore  not 
be  possible  to  move  a  great  group  of  you  with  any  considerable  expedition. 

Remember  as  you  enter  the  temple,  and  I  am  sure  you  will  remember, 
that  you  are  entering  a  holy  place.  We  would  like  you  to  go  immediately 
to  the  top  floor  where  we  will  have  one  of  the  brethren  at  the  organ 
playing  soft  music  for  us  while  we  wait  for  the  time  to  come  to  commence 
the  meeting.  We  ought  to  be  in  our  seats  by  9 : 50  because  they  will  begin 
broadcasting  from  the  Temple  at  10  o'clock  sharp.  The  broadcast  will 
be  the  usual  one  on  Easter  Sunday  morning.  It  will  consist  of  a  short 
service  by  us  in  the  Temple,  then  the  controls  will  go  to  the  Tabernacle 
where  the  Tabernacle  Choir  will  give  its  regular  Sunday  morning  broad- 
cast; then  Elder  Stephen  L  Richards  will  give  the  Church  of  the  Air  Easter 
sermon,  which  will  likewise  be  broadcast  from  the  Tabernacle.  We  shall 
hear  it  in  the  Temple  so  that  that  will  be  part  of  our  service.  When  that  is 
over  the  controls  will  come  back  to  us,  and  we  shall  go  forward  with  the 
rest  of  our  service,  until  1 2  o'clock,  when  we  shall  go  off  the  air.    We  then 


56 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  April  5  Second  Day 

count  on  recessing  for  thirty  minutes,  that  we  may  rest  and  go  to  the 
lavatories.  We  will  explain  about  them  to  you  tomorrow. 

Please,  brethren,  come  fasting,  and  with  a  fast-day  spirit. 

After  the  recess  tomorrow  we  shall  re-assemble  at  12:30  when  we 
shall  have  a  Fast  meeting.  The  quorum  of  the  Twelve  will  administer  the 
sacrament  to  us;  then  we  shall  have  testimony  meeting.  You  brethren 
will  be  asked  to  take  up  the  time  in  bearing  your  testimonies,  rather  than, 
may  I  say,  in  preaching  sermons.  There  are  a  lot  of  you  and  you  cannot 
all  be  heard  under  the  best  circumstances,  but  we  hope  that  the  spirit  of 
testimony  will  rest  upon  you,  so  that  no  time  will  be  wasted.  We  know 
that  we  shall  have  a  glorious  time.  That  meeting  will  end  when  it  seems 
right  to  end  it. 

We  will  now  close  by  singing,  "God  Be  With  You." 

Now,  brethren,  it  will  be  necessary  that  all  of  you  have  with  you  in 
the  morning  your  tickets  of  admission.  You  will  understand  that  we  cannot 
run  the  risk  of  anybody  going  who  should  not  be  there. 

Let  me  go  over  it  again  if  I  have  made  a  mistake:  The  gates  into  the 
Temple  will  be  opened  at  9:20.  Those  who  wish  to  use  the  elevator  ought 
to  get  there  at  that  time  or  as  soon  thereafter  as  possible.  You  all  ought 
to  be  in  your  seats  by  9:50.  Our  broadcast  from  the  Temple  will  begin  at 
10  and  run  until  10:30,  when  it  will  be  taken  over  by  the  Tabernacle  Choir, 
which  will  hold  it  for  thirty  minutes,  until  eleven;  then  another  thirty 
minutes  will  be  used  for  the  Church  o/  the  Air;  then  the  broadcast  will  come 
back  to  us  in  the  Temple  at  1 1 :30,  and  we  will  go  on  there  until  12.  Then 
we  will  be  off  the  air.  After  that  we  will  have  a  recess  for  thirty  minutes 
until  1 2 : 30.  We  will  re-assemble  at  1 2 : 30  and  have  our  testimony  meeting, 
where  you  brethren,  I  repeat,  will  be  the  ones  to  bear  your  testimonies. 
The  sacrament  will  be  administered  by  the  Twelve,  and  Brother  Clawson 
will  arrange  for  that  in  the  morning. 

Have  I  made  it  clear,  brethren?   Is  there  anything  else? 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "God  Be  With  You"  (L.  D.  S. 
Hymns,  page  132),  words  by  J.  E.  Rankin,  music  by  W.  G.  Tomer. 

Elder  Horace  A.  Hess,  President  of  the  Yellowstone  Stake,  offered 
the  closing  prayer. 

Conference  adjourned  until  Sunday,  April  5,  at  10:00  a.  m. 

SECOND  DAY 
MORNING  MEETING 

The  fourth  session  of  the  Conference  was  held  in  the  assembly  room 
on  the  fifth  floor  of  the  Salt  Lake  Temple,  and  the  meeting  convened  at 
10  o'clock  a.  m. 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

This  is  the  morning  session  of  the  second  day  of  the  One  Hundred 
and  Twelfth  Annual  Conference  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints.  We  are  meeting  in  the  upper  room  of  the  Salt  Lake  Temple. 


ELDER  ALBERT  E.  BOWEN 


57 


President  Heber  J.  Grant  is  presiding,  President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  is 
conducting  the  meeting.  There  are  present  on  the  stand  all  of  the  First 
Presidency,  all  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve,  five  Assistants  to  the  Twelve, 
the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy  and  the  Presiding  Bishopric.  The  con- 
gregation is  made  up  of  the  Presidencies  of  Stakes  and  the  President  of 
the  High  Priests  Quorum  in  each  Stake.  Almost  every  Stake  in  the 
Church  is  represented. 

Elder  Richard  P.  Condie  will  direct  the  music,  and  Elder  Alexander 
Schreiner  will  be  at  the  organ. 

We  will  open  the  meeting  by  the  congregation  singing,  "We  Thank 
Thee,  O  God  for  a  Prophet"  (Hymn  Book,  page  166;  No.  13  of  the 
Pamphlet ) . 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "We  Thank  Thee,  O  God,  For  A 
Prophet"  (Hymn  Book,  page  166). 

Elder  Hyrum  T.  Moss,  President  of  the  Rigby  Stake,  offered  the 
opening  prayer. 

ELDER  ALBERT  E.  BOWEN 

O/  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


OUR  meeting  here  this  morning 
seems  hopelessly  discordant 
in  its  purpose  with  current, 
all-enveloping  happenings.  We 
gather  to  worship  the  God  of  love  in 
the  name  of  His  Son,  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  And  even  as  we  speak,  the 
whole  world  is  ablaze  with  the  de- 
vouring flames  of  war.  At  this  in- 
stant, in  far-away  places  men  are 
locked  in  a  death  grapple. 

Both  in  its  scope  and  portent  the 
present  conflict  dwarfs  what  we 
heretofore,  out  of  tribute  to  its  mag- 
nitude, have  styled  the  World  War, 
as  that  eclipsed  the  wars  which  had 
gone  before.  Scarcely  is  there  a  land 
some  of  whose  citizens  have  not  for- 
feited their  lives.  In  all  the  earth, 
as  it  was  in  Ramah,  there  is  heard 
the  voice  of  lamentation:  "Rachel 
weeping  for  her  children  refused  to 
be  comforted  for  her  children,  be- 
cause they  were  not." 

But  we  are  not  met  here  for  mourn- 
ing, nor  to  commiserate  with  our- 
selves. We  are  not  even  convened 
to  call  down  fire  from  heaven  to  con- 
sume the  adversaries  of  our  country. 
We  are  come  together,  both  within 


these  walls  and  beyond  them  so  far 
as  the  spreading  ether  waves  reach 
out  and  bring  us  into  communion,  to 
refresh  ourselves  in  the  faith  that 
God  lives  and  directs  the  destinies 
of  this  world  and  of  men  and  of  na- 
tions; to  remind  ourselves  again  and 
to  draw  sustaining  power  from  the 
assurance  that  in  this  world  there 
are  such  simple  elementary  prin- 
ciples as  right  and  wrong  and  that 
in  their  unending  struggle  for  su- 
premacy right  will  always  triumph. 

We  should  accordingly  be  com- 
posed in  our  feelings.  Though  none 
of  us  can  penetrate  the  gloom  and 
see  what  lies  beyond,  we  know  that 
this  war,  like  others  that  have  gone 
before,  will  come  to  an  end.  Then 
we  shall  want  our  farms  and  our 
businesses  and  our  trades  the  same 
as  before.  We  should  hold  on  to 
them,  and,  so  far  as  may  be  under 
the  limitations  and  restrictions  im- 
posed by  the  times,  keep  everything 
productive.  We  cannot  give  way  to 
despair. 

We  must  likewise  sustain  our 
country  to  the  full  measure  of  the 
requirements  of  loyalty  and  patriotic 


58 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday.  April  5 

devotion.  The  nation  is  now  at  war. 
We  dare  not  lose  that  war,  for  its 
loss  would  mean  the  end  of  liberty 
as  we  have  come  to  esteem  it.  It 
could  mean  loss  of  the  right  to  meet 
and  worship  as  we  are  doing  now. 
We  may  have  a  major  task  to  pre- 
serve freedom  as  we  have  known  it 
even  with  the  war  won.  With  the 
war  lost  we  should  have  no  chance 
at  all.  We  of  this  Church  have  a 
particular  regard  for  freedom  under 
the  protection  of  law.  With  us  it 
is  a  religious  tenet.  We  have  vivid 
and  unhappy  memories  of  the  misery 
and  the  suffering  that  follow  when 
men  in  blind  fury  defy  the  restraints 
of  law  and  act  on  their  own  caprice. 
We  recognize  the  right  of  men  in  the 
exercise  of  their  freedom  of  choice 
to  reject  the  very  commandments  of 
God.  Only  a  free  soul  is  fit  to  enter 
His  kingdom.  Men  must  learn  here 
to  live  as  free  men  and  to  apply  the 
restraints  which  true  freedom  im- 
poses to  be  fit  for  the  heavenly  realm. 
Hence  we  are  unalterably  opposed 
to  the  attempt  of  any  nation  or  man 
or  group  of  men,  foreign  or  domestic, 
to  take  away  or  destroy  or  abrogate 
the  freedoms  guaranteed  under  the 
law  of  our  land. 

Ceated  behind  and  around  me  are 
the  men  who  hold  the  principal 
offices  in  this  Church.  I  doubt  if 
there  is  one  of  them  who  has  not 
now  in  the  armed  forces  sons  or 
grandsons  or  brothers  or  other  near 
kindred.  Some  of  these  have  al- 
ready made  the  supreme  sacrifice. 
They,  with  the  membership  at  large, 
sustain  the  government,  purchase  its 
bonds,  contribute  to  it  their  sub- 
stance and  give  it  their  fealty. 

We  abhor  war  with  all  its  sav- 
agery, its  human  wastage  and  its 
moral  degradation.  But  war  is  here 
and  since  the  principles  of  liberty 
are  at  stake,  challenging  the  very 
purposes  of  God,  my  faith  is  that 


Second  Day 

they  will  be  rescued,  though  at  what 
cost  of  blood  and  treasure  I  know  not. 

Abraham  Lincoln  fully  believed 
that  the  Civil  War  was  the  price  this 
nation  had  to  pay  for  the  sin  of  hu- 
man slavery.  We  had  proclaimed 
to  the  world  as  a  foundation  prin- 
ciple of  our  political  faith  the  in- 
alienable rights  of  all  men  to  be  free, 
but  we  practiced  human  bondage. 
That  was  a  base  denial  of  our  loud- 
toned  profession.  We  refused  to 
repent.  War  came.  In  a  dark  day 
of  reverses  Lincoln  expressed  con- 
cern lest  it  prove  to  be  God's  will  that 
the  chastisement  of  the  nation  might 
continue  "until  all  the  wealth  piled 
up  by  the  bondsman's  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil 
shall  sink,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  by  the  lash  shall  be 
paid  by  another  drawn  by  the 
sword." 

What  may  now  be  our  national 
sins  and  what  may  be  exacted  in 
expiation  I  leave  to  your  conclusions. 
Among  them  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
name  arrogance,  godlessness  and 
the  decay  of  a  living  Christian  faith. 

During  the  troubled  years  of  his 
presidency,  Lincoln  many  times  by 
proclamation  set  apart  days  for 
prayer  and  supplication  for  divine 
favor.  He  never  omitted  from  those 
proclamations  the  admonition  to 
pray  for  forgiveness  of  our  national 
sins  as  a  condition  to  the  reception 
of  God's  help. 

There  are  numerous  ways  besides 
those  I  have  already  mentioned  in 
which  we  may  contribute  strength  to 
the  nation.  But  I  am  persuaded  that 
the  service  the  Church  can  best  ren- 
der— and  it  is  a  transcendently  im- 
portant service — is  to  keep  alive  "as 
the  foundation  of  our  country's  fu- 
ture the  true  spirit  of  religion,  which 
involves  the  establishment  and  pres- 
ervation of  a  living  faith  in  a  living 
God.  Experience  should  have  taught 


ELDER  ALBERT  E.  BOW  EN 


59 


that  "except  God  build  the  house, 
they  labor  in  vain  who  build  it!" 

You  recall  an  occasion  when  Jesus 
asked  his  disciples,  "Whom  do  men 
say  that  I  am?"  They  gave  him  the 
various  conflicting  conjectures  they 
had  heard  expressed,  whereupon  he 
put  it  to  them  direct,  "But  whom 
say  ye  that  I  am?"  The  reply  came 
from  Peter  with  equal  directness: 
"Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God."  Christ  approved  that 
answer  and  declared  that  the  basis 
of  the  knowledge  implicit  in  it  was 
the  rock  upon  which  he  would  build 
His  Church.  He  said  more  than  that. 
He  said  that  being  so  foundationed 
the  gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail 
against  it.  That  is  a  very  important 
assurance.  It  promises  solidity  and 
perpetuity.  That  is  the  essence  of 
the  message  which  His  disciples  bore 
to  the  world.  As  Paul  phrased  it, 
they  determined  to  know  nothing 
save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 

J  want  here  to  quote  some  very 
penetrating  observations  of  an 
eminent  editorial  writer,  Thomas  F. 
Woodlock.  After  some  remarks 
about  the  lack  of  real  substance  in 
the  lip  service  we  pay  to  Christian 
precepts  he  continues, 

How  many  of  us  would  with  a  whole 
heart  and  clear  conviction  echo  Peter's  con- 
fession of  faith  when  challenged  by  his 
Master?  And  what  are  we  teaching  in  our 
schools,  grammar  and  high,  and  colleges  and 
universities  concerning  that  confession? 

Now  the  answer  to  the  question  put  to 
Peter  is  of  the  all-or-none  order.  The 
Christianity  which  built  the  western  civ- 
ilization was  built  upon  Peter's  answer. 
It  was  that  Christianity  which  brought 
democracy  into  the  world  because  it  was  the 
first  to  bring  to  man  the  revelation  of  hu- 
man personality,  and  that  is  the  rock  upon 
which  the  democracy  in  which  we  profess 
...  a  faith  .  .  .  rests  and  alone  can  rest. 
It  was  that  Christianity  upon  which  the 
declared  principles  of  our  civil  order  rest, 
and  there  is  no  other  resting  place  for  them. 
A  belief  in  democracy  without  a  belief  in 
that  Christianity  is  no  better  than  a  code 
deprived  of  its  creed  or  a  flower  cut  from 


its  parent  stem:  it  must  ultimately  wither  and 
die.  When  it  dies  freedom  dies,  even  if 
democratic  forms  survive.  Hitler  rules  to- 
day under  the  "forms"  of  the  Weimar  con- 
stitution and  Stalin  under  the  "forms"  of 
a  constitution  as  "democratic"  sounding  as 
anyone  could  wish!  The  same  thing  could 
happen  here  under  our  own  "forms"  if  we, 
too,  should  lose  faith  in  the  soul  that  alone 
can  give  them  life. 

I  am  not  predicting  dire  catas- 
trophe for  our  country.  But  I  do  say 
that  the  warning  sounded  is  no  idle 
one.  The  arraignment  made  by  Mr. 
Woodlock  is,  I  am  forced  reluctantly 
to  admit,  justified  by  the  facts.  Since 
sometime  before  the  war  started  in 
Europe  thoughtful  men,  there  and 
here,  scholars,  scientists,  publicists, 
statesmen,  religionists,  have  been 
calling  for  a  spiritual  and  religious 
recovery;  they  have  solemnly  warned 
that  our  nation  cannot  endure  "ex- 
cept upon  a  solid  religious  founda- 
tion," but  I  very  much  doubt  if  any  of 
them  would  give  the  answer  Peter 
gave  to  the  same  question  as  was  ad- 
dressed to  him.  Men  profess  a  deep 
attachment  to  what  they  call  the 
ethical  quality  of  Christ's  teachings, 
but  they  deny  Him.  The  nineteenth 
century  is  described  as  the  one  in 
which  man  substituted  belief  in  him- 
self for  belief  in  God.  "Glory  to 
man  in  the  highest"  was  Swinburne's 
impious  exultation.  Now  the  things 
of  which  man  thought  himself  master 
have  turned  on  him  with  a  terrible 
vengeance.  We  have  seen  the  de- 
cline of  religious  faith  followed  by 
the  rise  of  tyranny.  I  believe  it  is  a 
safe  generalization  that  despotism  is 
always  at  enmity  with  the  Christian 
religion.  They  rest  upon  inherently 
and  irreconcilably  antagonistic  con- 
ceptions about  man,  his  worth  and 
dignity  and  destiny  and  place  in  the 
order  of  things;  the  one  debases  him, 
the  other  exalts;  the  one  denies  God, 
the  other  acknowledges  His  supreme 
power  and  bows  before  His  majesty. 
The  teaching  of  the  Christian  re- 


60 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  April  5 

ligion  irritates  the  despot  because  it 
is  a  constant  denial  of  his  assumed 
supremacy  and  a  rebuke  to  his  tyran- 
nies. Hence  the  despot  always  seeks 
to  put  religion  down.  The  rise  of 
Hitler  in  Germany  heralded  assaults 
upon  the  church.  His  Minister  of  Re- 
ligion said,  "Adolph  Hitler  is  the 
true  Holy  Ghost,"  and  the  Minister 
of  Culture  declared,  "We  must  pro- 
claim a  German  Christ,  not  a  lamb 
of  God."  In  Russia  the  line  was 
the  same,  "What  is  worrying  us  is 
not  that  Christianity  is  dying  in 
Russia,  but  that  it  is  still  surviving," 
said  the  Commissioner  of  Justice. 
"The  natural  transition,"  said  an- 
other, "is  to  bring  about  the  death  of 
all  religion." 

Apparently  they  have  found  it 
impossible  to  root  out  of  their 
people  their  ingrained  instincts  for 
religious  worship.  And  so  the  ef- 
fort is  now  to  divert  them  to  a  new 
religion.  Dr.  Alfred  Rosenberg  has 
come  forward  with  the  blue  print 
for  a  "new  national  church."  It 
does  not  require  that  citizens  adhere 
to  it  but  it  outlaws  all  other  churches, 
confiscates  their  property,  forbids 
any  of  the  teachings  and  practices  of 
Christianity,  banishes  the  Bible  and 
substitutes  for  it  Mein  Kampf,  which 
is  never  to  be  added  to  nor  taken 
from  and  the  exposition  of  which  by 
state  designated  orators  is  to  be  the 
substance  of  all  religious  service. 
As  one  reads  the  prescriptions  one 
wonders  if  it  is  of  today  or  whether 
by  some  magic  he  has  been  shuttled 
back  into  primitive  paganism. 

But  you  may  say  what  has  all  that 
to  do  with  us.  Just  this.  Ger- 
many is  not  the  only  land  in 
which  there  is  an  ambition  to  set 
up  a  new  order,  nor  to  recast  re- 
ligion to  fit  into  that  order.  Incredible 
as  it  may  seem  there  is  at  work  in 
our  own  country  today  a  body  of 
men  and  women,  highly  intellectual, 


Second  Day 

trained  and  lettered,  apparently 
earnest  and  sincere  who  have  issued 
a  manifesto  which  they  call  "A 
Declaration  on  World  Democracy." 
They  propose  the  creation  of  a 
World  State  of  which  the  United 
States  of  America  is  to  be  the  hub 
and  its  framework  of  government  to 
furnish  the  pattern,  of  course  with 
plenty  of  circumscriptions  and  mod- 
ernizations. This  model  state  is  to 
have  the  modest  name,  "City  of 
Man,"  and  the  indwellers  are  to  have 
their  ideas  of  freedom  redefined  so 
as  to  bring  them  within  very  certain 
limitations.  But  we  pass  all  that  to 
observe  that  this  world  state  is  to 
have  provided  for  it  a  religion  which 
is  to  be  a  "religion  of  democracy." 
A  committee  of  experts  is  to  ex- 
amine all  the  various  existing  reli- 
gions and  determine  what  there  is  in 
them  "of  greater  or  lesser  value  for 
the  preservation  and  growth  of  the 
democratic  principle,"  what  "ele- 
ments in  them  are  more  apt  to  co- 
operate with  the  democratic  com- 
munity and  consequently  more  de- 
serving of  protection  by  it."  Our 
notions  of  religious  freedom  are  to 
be  re-examined  for  we  "must  know 
what  limits  are  set  by  the  religion  of 
freedom,  which  is  democracy  to  free- 
dom of  worship."  The  implication 
is  clear  that  it  will  be  just  too  bad  for 
any  religion  which  the  committee  of 
experts  finds  not  to  be  in  the  best  in- 
terests of  democracy  for  "the  uni- 
versal religion  of  democracy  shall 
underlie  each  and  all  of  them."  Per- 
haps I  ought  to  say  that  the  authors 
expressly  disclaim  the  intention  of 
setting  up  a  state  religion  though 
they  have  provided  all  the  frame- 
work for  it  including  a  body  of  in- 
quisitors. It  has  always  been  our 
assumption  that  democracy  was  born 
of  the  teachings  of  religion,  but  now 
democracy  is  to  determine  the  uses 
and  value  and  content  of  religion. 


ELDER  ALBERT  E.  BOWEN 


61 


VSThat  place,  I  ask  you,  is  there  for 
God  in  that  "religion  for 
democracy"  set  up  by  a  committee 
of  experts?  How  would  the  pro- 
jectors of  the  scheme  answer  the 
question  which  was  directed  to 
Peter?  And  if  God  is  excluded  how 
can  you  have  a  religion  at  all?  Where 
are  we  getting  to  in  our  cry  for  the 
recovery  of  religion  if  God  has  no 
place  in  it  except  to  supply  a  con- 
venient name  which  people  are  ac- 
customed to  associate  with  worship? 
Why  do  the  authors  desire  or  think 
it  important  to  have  in  the  model 
state  a  religion  at  all?  What  they 
would  provide  is  a  sham,  a  hollow 
shell  wholly  devoid  of  the  spirit  that 
gives  life.  The  proposal  is  near 
blasphemy.  It  dethrones  God  and 
deifies  man,  which  is  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal reasons  for  our  present  con- 
fusion and  turmoil  and  impotence. 
I  don't  mean  to  imply  that  these 
men  are  of  a  kind  with  Hitler  at  all, 
but  I  still  ask  what  essential  differ- 
ence there  is  in  principle  between 
their  "religion  for  democracy"  and 
Hitler's  "new  order"  or  Rosenberg's 
"new  religion." 

The  advocates  of  the  new  religion 
are  powerful  writers,  capable  of  ex- 
pressing their  ideas  with  force.  They 
command  wide  attention.  They 
present  America  with  the  issue, 
clearly  drawn,  whether  religion  is  a 
plan  and  a  way  of  life  for  mortals 
emanating  from  Deity  or  whether 


religion  shall  be  taken  over  by  the 
intellectuals,  formulated  on  their  de- 
sign and  made  the  mere  creature 
and  servant  of  the  political  state. 

For  the  future  safety  of  the  world, 
for  the  welfare  of  the  souls  of  men, 
for  the  preservation  and  salvation 
of  our  beloved  country  we  can  never 
make  that  surrender. 

In  that  matchless  prayer,  in  which 
he  pleaded  with  the  Father  for  the 
disciples  whom  He  was  about  to 
leave,  just  before  He  crossed  over 
the  brook  into  the  Garden,  Jesus 
used  these  words: 

And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might 
know  thee  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent. 

That  is  our  belief  and  our  mes- 
sage. That  is  the  message  which 
won  the  western  world  to  accept- 
ance of  the  Christian  faith.  Never 
did  men  more  need  the  sustaining 
power  of  that  firm  conviction  than 
in  this  confused,  bewildering,  and 
muddled  time.  Never  were  those 
words  freighted  with  a  deeper  mean- 
ing for  the  needs  of  the  hour.  They 
are  simple,  direct,  and  clear  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  tangled  skein 
of  mystifying  phrases  which  men  are 
driven  to  use  when  they  try  to  ex- 
pound a  God  of  philosophy  who  is 
not  the  Lord  God  omnipotent. 

God  grant  us  the  power  to  stand 
true  to  our  trust,  I  pray,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus,  Amen. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

Elder  Albert  E.  Bowen  has  just  spoken  to  us.  We  will  now  transfer 
this  broadcast  to  the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle.  The  Tabernacle  Choir  will 
give  its  Sunday  morning  broadcast.  After  that  broadcast  Elder  Stephen 
L  Richards  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  will  deliver  the  address  on  the 
Church  of  the  Air  program. 


62 

Sunday,  April  5 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Dag 


TABERNACLE  CHOIR  A] 

During  the  period  from  10:30  to 
11 :00  a.  m.,  the  regular  weekly  na- 
tionwide broadcast  of  choral  and  or- 
gan music  and  brief  spoken  comment 
was  presented  as  part  of  the  General 
Conference  proceedings.  This  pro- 
gram, which  will  have  completed  its 
thirteenth  year  of  continuous  nation- 
wide broadcasting  in  July  of  this 
year,  was  presented  by  the  Taber- 
nacle choir  and  organ,  and  broadcast 
through  the  courtesy  and  facilities 
of  the  Columbia  Broadcasting  Sys- 
tem's coast-to-coast  network, 
throughout  the  United  States  and  by 
short  wave  transmission  to  foreign 
lands.  The  broadcast,  written  and 
announced  by  Elder  Richard  L. 
Evans,  originated  with  radio  station 
KSL,  Salt  Lake  City,  and,  exclusive 
of  routine  introductory  and  closing 
announcements,  was  as  follows : 

Announcer:  With  the  passing  of  an- 
other seven  days,  we  pause  once 
more  within  the  shadows  of  the  ever- 
lasting hills,  as  music  and  the  spoken 
word  are  heard  again.  This  is  the 
654th  nation-wide  performance  of 
this  traditional  broadcast,  presented 
each  week  at  this  hour  as  Columbia 
brings  you  the  Tabernacle  choir  and 
organ  from  Temple  Square  in  Salt 
Lake  City. 

The  choir  is  conducted  by  J.  Spen- 
cer Cornwall.  Dr.  Frank  W.  Asper 
is  at  the  organ.  The  spoken  word 
by  Richard  Evans. 

( Pause ) 

Announcer:  On  this  Sabbath  of  the 
resurrection,  we  open  with  an  Easter 
anthem,  with  words  by  Charles 
Wesley  and  music  by  David  Hugh 
Jones.  "Hallelujah,  Christ  the  Lord 
is  Risen  Today." 

Choir  presents  "Alleluia"- — Jones. 

Organ  presents  Chorale  Prelude 
— "Christ  Lay  in  Death's  Embrace" 
—Bach. 


T>  ORGAN  BROADCAST 

Announcer:  "We'll  Sing  All  Hail  to 
Jesus'  Name."  This  hymn  of  death 
and  resurrection,  with  words  by 
Richard  Alldridge  and  music  by  Jos- 
eph Coslett,  is  heard  now  as  this  tra- 
ditional hour  from  Temple  Square 
continues. 

Choir  presents  "We'll  Sing  All 
Hail  to  Jesus'  Name"- — Coslett. 
Announcer:  A  symbol  of  the  season 
with  its  message  of  the  re-birth  of 
all  things  is  heard  now  from  Temple 
Square  as  the  Tabernacle  organ  re- 
calls the  phrases  of  Kinder's  "In 
Springtime." 

Organ  presents  "In  Springtime" 
— Kinder. 

Announcer:  We  turn  the  years  back 
now  to  recall  from  a  seventeenth 
century  Dutch  setting,  "This  Joyful 
Eastertide." 

Choir  presents  "This  Joyful  Eas- 
tertide." 

Announcer:  Another  traditional 
Easter  melody  is  taken  from  its  old 
world  setting  as  we  hear  the  Taber- 
nacle choir  singing — "Theodulph's 
Hymn." 

Choir  presents  "Theodulph's 
Hymn" — Techner. 
Announcer:  The  coming  of  another 
Easter  stirs  our  thoughts  anew  to 
the  issues  of  life,  and  death,  and 
immortality.  We  think  much  at  this 
season  of  those  whom  we  cherish 
who  have  already  departed  from  us 
— where  are  they,  and  when  shall 
we  again  behold  them?  For  answer 
there  are  many  who  cry  out  from 
the  depths  of  their  hearts.  There 
are  some  who  feel  they  have  the 
answer.  Others  steadfastly  deny  all 
possibility  of  immortality,  and  there 
are  still  others  who  accept  it  with 
many  qualifications.  Those  who 
profess  the  greatest  doubts  are  often 
most  inclined  to  talk  about  the  sub- 
ject. Those  who  have  a  quiet  assur- 


CHURCH  OF  THE  AIR  BROADCAST 


63 


ance  of  their  own  personal  continu- 
ance seem  little  disposed  to  raise  the 
issue.  Thoughtful  men  are  not  given 
to  much  talk  about  things  they  know 
so  well.  We  don't  quibble  as  to 
whether  or  not  spring  will  come 
again,  and  yet  that  we  shall  come 
forth  from  death  to  life  is  more  cer- 
tain than  spring's  return.  "If  it  were 
not  so,  I  would  have  told  you,"  is  the 
assurance  that  came  from  the  Savior 
of  the  world,  and  for  Him,  and  for 
His  followers — and  for  all  men — the 
question  was  settled  there.  "If  it 
were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you." 
The  fact  that  we  may  not  understand 
the  process  by  which  all  this  will  be 
brought  about,  does  not  cast  doubt 
upon  its  reality.  Truth,  fortunately, 
is  not  limited  by  the  present  under- 
standing of  men.  In  the  years  that 
brought  his  more  mature  convictions, 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  said  simply: 
"All  I  have  seen  teaches  me  to  trust 
the  Creator  for  all  I  have  not  seen." 
That  so  many  other  great  minds  have 
spoken  in  this  same  vein  is  comfort- 
ing and  reassuring,  but  no  matter 
who  chooses  to  believe  or  disbelieve 
it,  the  facts  remain,  as  the  Lord, 
Himself,  has  spoken  directly  and 
through  His  servants,  the  prophets, 
one  of  whom  said:  "Behold,  there  is 
a  time  appointed  that  all  shall  come 
forth  from  the  dead.  Now,  when 
this  time  cometh,  nd  man  knoweth — 
but  God  knoweth  .  .  .  that  all  shall 
rise  from  the  dead."  (Book  of  Mor- 
mon, Alma  4:4,  5)  This  glorious  cer- 
tainty rises  above  all  the  uncertain- 
ties of  our  troubled  generation.  And 
so,  while  those  who  disbelieve  still 
quibble,  those  who  believe  find  abid- 
ing peace  in  the  assurance  that  we 
and  all  those  we  love  and  all  men 


of  all  time  shall  continue  beyond  the 
present,  beyond  death,  unto  life  ever- 
lasting. Of  such  is  the  message  of 
Easter.  If  there  be  those  who  doubt 
it,  let  them  doubt  no  more.  If  there 
be  those  who  mourn,  let  them  take 
comfort.  If  there  be  those  who  love 
life,  let  them  prepare  to  live  it,  for- 
ever. 

Organ  presents   "Praise  to  the 

Man." 

Announcer:  And  now  from  fifteenth 
century  tradition  comes  an  expres- 
sion of  this  day  of  days — "Easter 
Joy." 

Choir  presents  "Easter  Joy." 
Announcer:  And  now  we  close  from 
Temple  Square  as  the  Tabernacle 
choir  sings  from  the  Messiah  by 
Handel — "Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that 
was  slain,  and  hath  redeemed  us  to 
God  ...  to  receive  power,  and  riches, 
and  wisdom,  and  strength,  and  hon- 
or, and  glory,  and  blessing." 

Choir  sings  "Worthy  is  the  Lamb" 
Handel. 

Announcer:  "I  am  the  resurrection 
and  the  life.  He  that  believeth  in 
Me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall 
he  live.  Believeth  thou  this?  .  .  . 
Yea,  Lord,  I  believe." 

This  Sabbath  Hour  from  the 
Crossroads  of  the  West  is  ended. 

Until  we  beckon  your  thoughts 
again  unto  the  hills,  we  wish  for  you 
peace  this  day  and  always,  the  peace 
that  understanding  brings  to  the 
hearts  of  men. 

The  singing  of  the  Tabernacle 
choir  was  conducted  by  J.  Spencer 
Cornwall.  Dr.  Frank  W.  Asper  was 
at  the  organ;  spoken  word  by  Rich- 
ard Evans. 


CHURCH  OF  THE  AIR  BROADCAST 

Immediately  after  the  conclusion  known  as  the  Columbia  Broadcast- 

of  the  traditional  Tabernacle  Choir  ing  System's  Church  of  the  Air,  was 

and  Organ  broadcast,  an  additional  presented  from  1 1 :00  to  1  i  :30  a.  m., 

thirty    minute    period,     regularly  as  a  part  of  the  proceedings  of  this 


64 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  April  5 

session  of  the  conference,  and  was 
also  released  over  nationwide  and 
international  network  facilities.  Mu- 
sic was  by  the  Tabernacle  Choir  and 
Organ,  with  J.  Spencer  Cornwall  di- 
recting and  Dr.  Frank  W.  Asper  at 
the  Organ,  and  Elder  Stephen  L 
Richards  of  the  Council  of  the 
Twelve  delivered  the  address.  The 
program  was  conducted  by  Richard 
L.  Evans,  who  introduced  it  as  fol- 
lows: 

Theme:  "Sweet  Is  the  Work" — 
McClellan — organ  and  humming 
voices. 

Announcer:  A  decade  ago  the 
Church  of  the  Air  was  brought  into 
being  by  the  Columbia  Broadcasting 
System  to  give  opportunity  to  repre- 
sentatives of  the  major  faiths  to  bring 


Second  Day 

their  messages  to  a  nationwide  con- 
gregation of  worshippers.  Since 
that  time  these  religious  services 
have  been  heard  twice  each  Sunday. 
Today,  in  the  eleventh  year  of  the 
Church  of  the  Air,  the  network  Mor- 
mon service  comes  to  you  as  part  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  one  hundred 
twelfth  Annual  Conference  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  through  Station  KSL  in 
Salt  Lake  City.  The  service  origi- 
nates in  the  Mormon  Tabernacle 
while  leaders  of  the  Church  listen  in 
session,  in  the  upper  rooms  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Temple.  We  will  give  the 
service  into  the  hands  of  Stephen  L 
Richards  of  the  Quorum  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles,  whose  subject  will 
be,  "Had  We  Listened  to  the  Proph- 
ets." 


ELDER  STEPHEN  L  RICHARDS 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


The  morning  breaks,  the  shadows  flee; 
Lo!  Zion's  standard  is  unfurled. 
The  dawning  of  a  brighter  day 
Majestic  rises  on  the  world. 

TftESE  lines  from  a  poet  were 
not  penned  to  herald  Easter 
morn,  although  they  might 
well  have  been.  They  were  written 
to  announce  the  advent  of  a  new 
gospel  dispensation.  They  also  ap- 
propriately symbolize  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  Christ.  When  His 
bruised  and  wounded  body  arose 
from  the  sepulcher  and  put  on  the 
radiant  garb  of  immortality,  it  was 
in  truth  the  dawning  of  a  new  and 
brighter  day  for  all  the  world. 

That  event  was  the  central  fact 
in  the  life  of  the  Savior.  For  it  He 
was  born;  to  prepare  for  it  He  lived 
His  matchless  life;  to  substantiate  its 
efficacy  for  all  men,  He  endured 
more  sorrow  than  any  other,  a  cruder 
death,  carried  a  heavier  burden — all 
to  demonstrate  the  supreme  happi- 


ness and  the  most  transcendently 
beautiful  and  desirable  thing  within 
the  attainment  of  humankind — eter- 
nal life. 

The  Easter  we  celebrate  this  day 
in  the  Christian  world,  together  with 
substantially  all  other  aspects  of  the 
life  and  ministry  of  the  Redeemer 
was  foretold  by  the  prophets.  I 
have  counted  two  hundred  twenty- 
two  verses  of  scripture  from  the  Bible 
alone  which  deal  in  a  prophetic  way 
with  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Surely 
there  is  significance  in  this  volumi- 
nous foretelling  of  the  greatest  thing 
in  history.  I  look  upon  it  as  the 
supreme  vindication  of  prophecy  and 
the  prophets.  The  Savior  might 
have  lived,  died,  and  done  His  work 
without  prediction  of  His  coming,  but 
it  is  evident  that  that  was  not  the 
plan.  Being  the  author  of  faith,  He 
caused  that  sacred  principle  to  be 
introduced  as  the  premise  for  His 
appearance  in  the  flesh,  and  He  left 


ELDER  STEPHEN  L  RICHARDS 


65 


it  with  men  as  the  cornerstone  in  the 
foundation  of  His  gospel.  From  it 
I  draw  the  meaning  of  this  hour. 

To  the  followers  of  Christ  every- 
where I  pose  this  question:  Has 
anyone  truly  Christian  faith  who 
does  not  believe  the  prophets?  I 
suspect  that  some  may  not  care  to 
answer  the  question,  even  to  them- 
selves, but  I  know  of  no  better  way 
of  testing  our  real  allegiance  to 
Christian  principles. 

The  prophets  have  had  vital  mes- 
sages for  us  in  days  that  are  gone, 
as  they  have  in  the  critical  days  that 
are  here.  Had  we  understood  and 
believed  their  words,  many  of  our 
difficulties  might  have  been  averted. 
They  have  given  us  counsel  on  every 
phase  of  our  living.  They  have  told 
us  the  things  that  would  make  for 
happiness  and  success,  and  they  have 
pointed  out  the  courses  which  lead 
to  misery  and  failure.  We  should 
be  deeply  interested  in  their  words 
now,  as  we  are  searching  for  causes 
and  remedies,  and  when  we  are  so 
urgently  in  need  of  formulas  to  unite 
and  solidify  our  people  and  our  ef- 
forts in  the  Herculean  task  before 
us.  Painful  as  it  may  be,  we  must 
admit  our  mistakes  before  we  can 
rectify  them. 

Most  of  our  people  recognize  the 
necessity  for  spiritual  support  in  this 
war.  I  believe  there  is  no  higher 
spirituality  than  that  which  is  mani- 
fested in  prophecy  and  also  in  its 
acceptance.  God  speaks  through  His 
chosen  servants.  If  we  do  not  listen 
to  them,  it  is  likely  we  do*  not  really 
hear  God  at  all,  although  I  do  not 
mean  in  any  degree  to  deprecate  in- 
dividual communion  with  our  Father 
through  prayer.  I  have  in  mind  di- 
vine pronouncement  of  principles 
and  laws  for  the  guidance  of  men 
and  nations. 

This  war  began  among  Christian 
nations.  It  is  true  that  China  and 
Japan  were  involved  before  its  out- 


break, but  its  foundations  were  laid 
among  peoples  who  had  the  Bible 
and,  professedly  at  least,  the 
churches  of  Christ.  Had  they  lis- 
tened to  inspired  prophets,  it  and 
many  preceding  wars  would  never 
have  been  begun.  In  the  first  place, 
they  would  have  been  convinced  of 
the  necessity  of  adopting  principles 
governing  international  relations 
which  would  have  averted  conflict, 
and  in  the  second  place  they  would 
have  known  from  the  beginning  the 
futility  of  war.  Wars  have  been 
fought  before  to  end  war,  and  man- 
kind should  have  learned  long  ago 
that  the  war  serum  injected  any- 
where in  the  body  of  the  universe  is 
wholly  ineffective  as  an  antitoxin  for 
the  malady  of  human  conflict.  Surely 
it  is  time  for  investigation  to  be 
directed  along  other  lines  to  isolate 
the  bacteria  of  this  disease  and  pro- 
vide a  cure. 

Now  as  I  see  it,  those  engaged  in 
such  investigations  have  become  so 
engrossed  in  the  use  of  microscopic 
technological  methods  that  there  has 
developed  an  adversity  to  the  simple, 
obvious  formulas  which,  whenever 
actually  tried,  have  proved  effective. 
Not  long  ago  I  heard  a  prominent 
scientist  declare  that  science  would 
end  war.  He  said  that  scientific 
genius  would  devise  such  terrible 
killing  devices  that  men  would  be 
afraid  to  go  to  war.  This  I  doubt, 
first,  because  the  defense  can  call  to 
its  aid  the  same  science  as  the  of- 
fense, and  secondly,  because  I  be- 
lieve that  fear  will  never  be  an  ade- 
quate deterrent.  We  have  record  of 
wars  resulting  in  the  complete  ex- 
termination of  the  opposing  hosts, 
but  I  don't  know  that  anybody  looks 
forward  to  such  a  process  of  ending 
war. 

goMEHOW  there  has  developed  a 
certain  modern  education  which 
seems  to  have  disdain  for  the  ob- 


66 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  April  5 

vious,  proceeding  on  the  assumption 
that  if  it's  simple  and  old,  it  can't  be 
true.  Such  an  attitude,  which  for- 
tunately is  by  no  means  universal, 
has  served  greatly  to  retard  the  solu- 
tion of  many  of  our  most  important 
problems,  chief  among  which  is  the 
question  how  men  may  live  together 
comfortably  and  in  peace.  All  of  us 
rejoice  in  the  contribution  science 
has  made  to  the  convenience  and 
pleasure  of  our  living.  We  are 
deeply  grateful  for  the  discoveries 
of  patient,  hard-working  research 
men  who  have  contributed  so  much 
to  freedom  from  disease,  organic 
efficiency  and  longevity  of  life.  I 
noted  a  number  of  years  ago  that  a 
poll  of  students  placed  Louis  Pasteur 
at  the  head  of  a  list  of  great  men, 
excluding  religious  leaders,  who  had 
made  contributions  to  mankind. 

What  a  pity  it  is  that  in  the  face  of 
all  these  remarkable  advances  in 
health,  sanitation,  comfort,  and 
beauty  that  we  have  made  so  little 
progress  in  human  relations.  Some- 
one has  pointed  out  that  the  greatest 
tragedy  of  the  modern  age  was  the 
tercentenary  of  Harvard  University 
in  1 936,  where  scholars  from  all  over 
the  world  met  to  appraise  the  prog- 
ress of  the  world  for  the  past  three 
hundred  years  and  reached  the  sol- 
emn conclusion  that,  while  man  had 
made  most  unusual  and  commend- 
able progress  in  solving  the  mys- 
teries of  the  universe,  bringing  un- 
der control  the  forces  of  nature,  that 
in  all  this  long  period  of  time  he  had 
made  no  appreciable  advance  in  the 
control  of  himself,  his  greed  and  his 
passions,  and  that  he  was  even  more 
prone  to  fight  with  other  men  than 
he  had  been  centuries  before.  So 
it  is  evident  that  the  social  studies 
carried  forward  by  many  conspicu- 
ously brilliant  people  have  not  helped 
us  very  much  in  our  greatest  diffi- 
culty. 

Now  that  we  are  in  a  crisis  we  find 


Second  Day 

ourselves  groping  for  every  straw 
that  might  indicate  the  proper  di- 
rection of  our  national  effort.  We 
have  tried  and  we  are  still  trying 
experiments  by  the  score.  We  know 
that  we  need  unity,  loyalty,  self- 
sacrifice,  efficiency,  and  faith.  We 
plead  and  cry  for  these  high  qual- 
ities so  essential  to  success,  but  they 
don't  come  in  sufficient  measure. 
Dissension,  costly  disputes,  selfish 
interest,  inefficiency,  skepticism,  and 
doubt  continue  to  retard  our  prepara- 
tion to  meet  a  peril  that  is  so  immi- 
nent as  to  make  the  best  things  of 
life  tremble  in  the  balance.  This  is 
the  situation.  Is  there  a  day  or  an 
hour  nearer  and  better  than  now — 
right  now — tO'  meet  the  challenge? 
I  believe  there  is  not. 

Where  can  we  look  for  the  essen- 
tial virtues  our  people  need  with 
greater  hope  and  assurance  than  to 
religion  and  the  prophets?  It  is  there 
that  we  find  not  only  the  outstand- 
ing examples  but  the  most  potent 
factors  for  cohesion,  solidarity,  and 
unity.  It  is  there  that  loyal  devotion 
and  self-sacrifice  for  a  cause  have 
been  developed  and  shown  their 
richest  fruit.  It  is  there  that  we  have 
been  given  the  gospel  of  work,  in- 
dustry, frugality,  and  thrift.  It  is 
there  that  we  have  been  taught  the 
virtue  of  honesty  and  integrity;  and 
it  is  there,  and  there  alone,  where 
we  have  learned  the  meaning  and 
vitality  of  faith.  Did  you  ever  stop 
to  think  where  we  would  be  if  all  the 
learning,  all  the  concepts,  all  the- 
morality,  all  the  idealism,  and  vir- 
tue that  have  come  to  us  from  the 
prophets  should  be  swept  away  and 
annihilated?  It  seems  to  me  a  mo- 
ment's contemplation  on  such  an  aw- 
ful state  should  immediately  renew 
and  enhance  our  appreciation  of  the 
inestimable  contributions  which  have 
come  to  us  through  divinely  inspired 
men. 

Now  I  hope  you  will  bear  with  me 


ELDER  STEPHEN  L  RICHARDS 


67 


as  I  project  a  few  specific  applica- 
tions of  the  great  principles  and  doc- 
trines which  have  been  our  heritage 
to  our  present  situation.  We  named 
as  our  first  need:  Unity.  How  is  it 
to  come?  We  thought  that  the  ter- 
rific shock  of  Pearl  Harbor  had 
brought  it.  As  the  weeks  passed 
and  the  force  of  the  sudden  impact 
subsided,  we  found  that  we  were 
mistaken.  A  hundred  incidents 
which  you  know,  and  I  have  not  time 
to  mention,  bear  that  out.  Selfish 
interests  still  dominate  much  of  our 
internal  negotiations  and  activities. 
It  is  vainly  pointed  out  with  irre- 
futable logic  that  these  militate 
against  our  efficiency  and  success. 
What  is  the  answer?  Brotherhood 
— the  fraternity  of  men  taught  to 
us  by  the  prophets.  I  know  that 
some  may  say  it  is  Utopian  and  un- 
attainable, yet  it  is  the  very  thing 
we  are  announcing  in  carefully 
worded  charters  as  the  panacea  for 
the  ills  of  the  world.  Why  not  try 
it  at  home  and  demonstrate  its  effi- 
cacy before  we  attempt  to  spread  it 
abroad?  All  that  it  entails  is  mutual 
consideration  and  the  recognition  of 
humankind  as  the  family  of  God. 
The  latter  is  especially  important. 
There  are  few,  if  any,  stronger  co- 
hesive factors  than  kinship.  We  do 
not  establish  kinship  without  par- 
entage. We  cannot  estimate  the 
value  of  the  acceptance  of  God  as  a 
universal  Father. 

■VI/e  are  continually  told  that  self- 
™*  sacrifice  is  necessary  to  our 
success.  Self-sacrifice  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Its  history  is  filled  with  instances  of  it. 
The  early  Christians,  the  monasterial 
life  of  the  Middle  Ages  carried  to  ex- 
cess in  asceticism,  the  exploring  mis- 
sionaries, and  our  own  Puritan  fathers 
are  but  a  few.  This  very  day  is  in 
commemoration  of  One  who  gave  His 
life  to  teach  self-sacrifice  and  altruistic 
service.    Sacrifice  in  its  finer  aspect  is 


a  spiritual  concept.  It  elevates  spiritual 
growth  above  material  gain.  It  looks 
for  its  reward  in  things  only  of  endur- 
ing worth.  This  concept,  firmly  im- 
planted in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  is 
all  we  need  to  help  us  endure  cheerfully 
whatever  deprivation  may  be  necessary 
to  aid  our  country. 

We  need  efficiency  in  all  our  en- 
deavor. No  one  doubts  it.  Everyone 
is  clamoring  for  it.  Now  efficiency,  in 
the  last  analysis,  has  reference  to  man 
power.  We  speak  of  efficient  ma- 
chines and  efficient  organizations  and 
efficient  methods,  but  it  is  men  who 
make  all  these.  Someone  has  well  said, 
"It  is  not  the  guns  that  win  decisive 
battles;  it  is  the  men  behind  the  guns." 
Another  has  said  about  this  crisis,  "It 
is  self  discipline  or  slavery."  I  don't 
intend  to  take  the  time  to  present  facts 
revealed  by  the  physical  examinations 
of  our  selectees.  All  of  you  have  read 
some  of  these  reports,  and  you  have 
general  knowledge  of  the  vast  number 
rejected  for  unfitness. 

One  caustic  critic  has  said,  "Amer- 
ica is  drunk.  How  could  she  be  other- 
Wise  after  having  smoked  or  chewed 
three  hundred  forty-three  million 
pounds  of  tobacco  and  swallowed  more 
than  one  billion,  six  hundred  fifty-four 
million  gallons  of  malted  liquor  and  one 
hundred  twenty-four  million  gallons  of 
spirituous  liquor,  nearly  two  billion 
gallons  of  beer  and  whiskey  annually?" 
The  same  article  concludes  by  the  as- 
sertion, "America  is  burning  up  its  en- 
ergy in  pipes,  cigars,  and  cigarettes, 
drowning  it  in  beer,  wine,  whiskey,  and 
rum,  and  smothering  it  with  luxurious 
living.  .  .  .  The  Fifth  Columnists  who 
are  doing  America  the  most  harm  are 
the  promoters  of  these  .  .  .  great  evils 
to  the  damaging  effects  of  which  our 
military  leaders  are  not  yet  awake." 

If  these  statements  in  any  substantial 
degree  represent  the  truth,  what  a  de- 
plorable calamity  has  befallen  us!  Our 
war  enemy  himself  could  scarcely  strike 
more  terribly  and  effectively  against 
our  man  power  than  these  arch  enemies 
of  the  race  have  already  struck.  With 
all  the  expedients  we  can  devise,  it  will 
take  years  to  undo  the  damage.  Never 


68 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  April  5 

has  a  more  deadly  fallacy  crept  into 
any  society  than  that  more  narcotics, 
more  tobacco,  more  whiskey,  and  more 
licentiousness  will  make  better  armies. 
This  sophistry  and  diabolical  propa- 
ganda is  not  the  work  of  religion  and 
the  prophets.  It  emanates  from  the 
enemies  of  religion  and  the  enemies  of 
men  and  the  nation.  Thank  the  Lord 
for  the  courage  of  Gene  Tunney  and 
a  few  others  like  him  who  see  the  far- 
reaching  and  disastrous  effects  of  these 
narcotics,  and  are  brave  enough  to 
speak  out  against  them  and  those  who 
perpetrate  them  on  our  youth!  I  be- 
lieve that  the  great  majority  of  all  the 
homes  in  America  from  which  the  army 
boys  have  come  would  thank  our  Com- 
mander-in-Chief from  the  bottom  of 
their  hearts  if  he  would  make  an  order 
forbidding  the  use  of  such  poisons  in 
our  military  establishments. 

What  a  difference  it  would  have 
made,  and  would  still  make  to  our 
efficiency,  if  men  would  but  accept  the 
concepts  of  the  human  body  given  to 
us  by  the  prophets : — if  they  would  look 
upon  the  body  as  the  tabernacle  of  the 
spirit  which  dwells  within  it,  and  pro- 
tect and  preserve  it  from  abuses  and 
deleterious  substances  which  militate 
against  its  organic  efficiency.  If  they 
would  remember  that  it  is  an  affront 
to  God  to  violate  the  purity  of  these 
earthly  temples  of  the  spirit,  I  am  sure 
they  would  be  more  thoughtful  in  their 
care.  How  precious  to  the  nation,  not 
to  mention  homes  and  loved  ones,  are 
the  bodies  of  our  youth!  The  revela- 
tions through  the  prophets  have  told 
us  long  ago  what  is  good  for  them  and 
what  is  hurtful.  Science  has  confirmed 
divinely  inspired  formulas.  The  laws 
of  health  are  inexorable.  They  cannot 
be  violated  with  impunity. 

So,  in  the  interest  of  our  boys,  in  the 
interest  of  our  country's  cause,  I  humbly 
appeal  to  all  who  love  them  and  to  all 
who  are  the  beneficiaries  of  their  noble 
service,  not  to  send  them  cigarettes  and 
intoxicating  liquors.  In  the  end  they 
will  know  that  you  were  kind  if  you 
help  them  to  conserve  their  strength 
and  vitality  in  wholesome,  righteous 
living.    Try  to  help  them  realize  that 


Second  Dag 

in  the  face  of  danger  there  is  one  thing 
they  cannot  hazard  and  that  is  their 
souls. 

Prophecy  and  religion  supply  the  one 
most  indispensable  element  in  all 
our  colossal  endeavor,  and  that  is  faith 
— faith  in  the  destiny  of  our  democracy, 
faith  in  the  triumph  of  righteousness 
over  evil,  and  faith  in  the  worth,  the 
integrity,  and  the  majesty  of  man. 

We  live  in  a  world  of  irreverence. 
Oh,  I  know  that  it  is  true  that  we  have 
preserved  forms  of  worship.  Millions 
are  invested  in  churches  and  cathedrals, 
and  we  in  America,  as  in  other  Chris- 
tian countries,  maintain  at  great  ex- 
pense much  of  the  formalism  and 
pageantry  of  religion.  I  know,  too, 
that  there  are  thousands  of  good  men 
and  women  who  love  God  and  seek  to 
order  their  lives  in  conformity  with  His 
teachings,  but  accounting  for  all  these, 
there  are  relatively  few — so  very  few 
— who  have  the  simple,  honest,  humble 
faith  to  accept  the  Word  of  God  as 
revealed  to  and  spoken  through  His 
chosen  prophets. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  it  is  so,  because 
out  of  the  words  of  the  prophets  we 
have  received  not  only  our  most  pro- 
found understanding  of  man  and  the 
universe,  but  also  the  assurances  and 
predictions  that  bring  comfort,  hope, 
confidence,  joy,  and  a  peace  "which 
passeth  all  understanding."  It  is  from 
the  prophets  that  we  learn  of  the  glori- 
ous place  and  distinction  given  to  man 
among  all  God's  creations,  that  he  was 
created  in  the  image  of  God  and  that 
he  is  not  menial,  nor  low,  nor  of  servile 
nature,  but  that  he  is  of  high  estate,  of 
the  noblest  lineage,  endowed  with  the 
God-given  gift  of  intelligence,  the 
sublime  and  supreme  investiture  of  both 
God  and  man.  It  is  from  the  prophets 
that  we  learn  that  he  is  to  be  free,  with 
the  voluntary  power  of  choice,  and  that 
this  free  agency  is  essential  to  his  de- 
velopment and  progression.  And  it  is 
from  the  greatest  of  all  the  prophets, 
Jesus  Himself,  that  we  learn  how  man 
is  to  retain  his  freedom,  for  He  said, 
".  .  .  Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free." 

What  a  difference  it  would  make  in 


ELDER  STEPHEN  L  RICHARDS 


69 


the  world  today  if  only  the  people  be- 
lieved the  prophets  and  knew  these 
truths!  Had  we  accepted  their  spiritual 
reality  and  the  verity  of  their  messages, 
the  tragedy  that  envelops  the  world 
today  would  never  have  been.  But  we 
thought  it  was  childish  to  believe  in 
them.  We  looked  upon  them  as  vision- 
ary men  whose  words  had  no  import 
for  our  day.  We  didn't  believe  in  a 
higher  power  that  could  look  through 
the  vista  of  time  and  foresee  the  tragic 
things  that  would  come  to  men  out  of 
their  perversity,  their  egotism,  and 
their  sin.  We  ignored  all  the  warn- 
ings, and  we  laughed  in  the  faces  of 
these  solemn  messengers  from  On  High, 
because  we  wanted  fun  and  light-heart- 
edness  and  vanity  and  hundreds  of 
other  things  to  distract  us  from  the 
serious  things  of  life. 

How  unfortunate  it  is  that  we  did 
not  recognize  that  there  is  no  lasting 
happiness  and  peace  except  in  goodness, 
and  that  the  ways  of  God,  the  ways  in 
which  the  prophets  tried  to  lead  us, 
are  the  only  ways  to  joy  and  safety. 

If  we  had  but  followed  the  proph- 
ecies, we  would  have  known  from  the 
very  beginning  of  our  nation  that  one 
of  old  had  said  that  ".  .  .  this  is  a 
choice  land,  and  whatsoever  nation  shall 
possess  it  shall  be  free  from  bondage, 
and  from  captivity,  and  from  all  other 
nations  under  heaven,  if  they  will  but 
serve  the  God  of  the  land,  who  is  Jesus 
Christ."  Had  we  had  that  knowledge 
and  believed  it,  we  should  have  known 
all  along  where  to  have  put  our  trust 
and  what  the  course  of  our  lives  should 
be.  There  would  have  been  no  anxiety 
or  misgivings  concerning  the  future  of 
our  beloved  America,  and  there  would 
be  none  now,  could  we  but  quickly 
come  to  the  truth  and  accept  the  divine 
word. 

I  need  not  argue  that  it  is  the  province 
of  religion  to  bring  to  pass  an  accept- 
ance of  the  prophecies.  They  are  the 
constitution  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
No  man  truly  enters  into  the  kingdom 
who  does  not  believe  and  follow  the 
prophets. 

It  is  fortunate  indeed  that  so  many 
admire  the  teachings  of  Christ — kind- 
ness, mercy,  tolerance,  forgiveness,  and 


the  doctrine  of  the  good  neighbor,  and 
altruistic  service — but  I  fear  that  there 
are  many  who  worship  at  the  shrine 
of  His  teachings  and  attributes  but 
deny  the  sovereignty  of  the  King.  True 
religion  teaches  us  that  the  most  ac- 
ceptable homage  we  can  render  to  the 
Savior  is  to  acknowledge  Him  as  God 
and  pay  Him  the  tribute  of  a  good  life. 
No  praise,  no  adoration  can  be  substi- 
tuted for  this.  One  gift  only  is  ade- 
quate, and  that  is  the  giving  of  one's 
self. 

Now  it  would  seem  that  we  have  a 
long  way  to  go  to  reach  the  goals  the 
prophets  have  set  for  us.  We  truly 
have.  But  there  will  never  be  a  more 
propitious  time  to  start  the  journey  than 
now.  We  need  not  be  discouraged 
because  the  road  seems  long  and  hard. 
It  will  never  be  easier.  We  ought  to 
feel  happy  that  the  promises  which  were 
given  so  long  ago  are  still  held  out  to 
us,  and  happy  too  that  in  spite  of  our 
mistakes  of  the  past,  through  mercy, 
there  is  yet  time  to  turn  from  mistaken 
and  unprofitable  ways  and  direct  the 
course  of  our  lives,  both  individual  and 
national,  into  the  straight  ways  that 
lead  to  truth  and  peace  and  security. 

My  friends,  I  would  not  willingly  give 
offense  to  a  single  soul  this  Easter  day. 
I  recognize  the  right  of  every  man  to 
his  own  views  and  opinions.  What  I 
have  said  has  been  prompted  by  love 
of  country  and  my  fellow  men.  More 
than  anything  else  I  desire  the  blessings 
of  God  to  attend  our  beloved  America 
and  the  lofty  causes  for  which  she 
stands.  I  am  sure  that  it  is  the  burden 
of  every  prayer  which  is  offered  that 
our  nation  shall  come  to  victory  and 
glorious  triumph.  My  convictions, 
however,  constrain  me  to  say  to  you 
that  it  is  the  prayers  of  the  righteous 
which  will  be  heard.  Our  Father  ex- 
acts a  contrite  heart  and  a  pure  life  for 
the  bestowal  of  His  blessings.  It  is 
for  these  I  plead.  If  these  are  given, 
He  will  cause  all  the  rest  to  follow. 
Oh,  God,  grant  that  it  may  be  so! 

After  address,  choir  sang  "The 
Morning  Breaks" — Careless. 
Announcer:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen, 


70 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  April  5 

you  have  been  attending  Columbia's 
Church  of  the  Air,  coming  to  you 
from  the  Tabernacle  on  Temple 
Square  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  orig- 
inating with  Station  KSL.  The  net- 
work Mormon  service  today  was 
presented  as  part  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  one  hundred  twelfth  annual 
conference  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  as  lead- 
ers of  the  Church  listened  in  session 

(End  of 


Second  Day 

in  the  upper  rooms  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Temple.  The  speaker  was  Elder 
Stephen  L  Richards  of  the  Quorum 
of  the  Twelve  Apostles.  Copies  of 
his  sermon  may  be  obtained  by  writ- 
ing to  the  station  to  which  you  are 
listening. 

The  Tabernacle  choir  joined  in  the 
service  with  J.  Spencer  Cornwall 
conducting  and  Dr.  Frank  W.  As- 
per  at  the  organ. 
Broadcast ) 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

We  shall  now  continue  our  service  in  the  upper  room  of  the  Temple. 
President  David  O.  McKay  of  the  First  Presidency  will  now  speak  to  us. 

PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 

Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

And  when  he  had  so  said,  he  shewed 
unto  them  his  hands  and  his  side.  Then 
were  the  disciples  glad,  when  they  saw 
the  Lord. 

Then  said  Jesus  to  them  again,  Peace 
be  unto  you.  (John  20:20-21 ) 


With  a  number  of  young  men 
from  each  of  many  wards  in 
the  Church  serving  some- 
where in  the  terrible  conflict  now 
raging,  it  is  easily  understood  why 
our  minds  are  turned  toward  the 
deprecation  of  war,  and  to  the  hope 
for  peace.  Thoughts  of  loved  ones 
are  pretty  closely  linked  with  their 
soldier  boys  in  army  encampments. 
There  are  many,  too,  who  should 
like  to  know  what  the  attitude  of  the 
Church  is  toward  the  present  war. 
This  is  a  fitting  day  and  occasion  on 
which  to  consider  this  subject. 

Easter,  as  you  know,  is  an  ancient 
spring  festival  with  which  Christen- 
dom has  long  since  associated  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Savior's  resurrection  is  the  most 
glorious  event  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind. It  proclaims  the  victory  of  the 
soul  over  death,  and  the  existence 
and  progression  of  the  individual 
personality  beyond  the  grave. 

The  resurrected  Lord's  first  greet- 
ing to  His  disciples,  in  the  evening 
of  that  memorable  day,  was  "Peace 
be  unto  you." 


That  was  His  message,  too,  at  the 
last  meeting  He  had  with  them  be- 
fore his  crucifixion.  Said  He: 
"These  words  I  have  spoken  unto 
you  that  in  me  ye  might  have  peace." 

The  peace  of  Christ  abides  in  the 
heart.  It  as  an  individual  blessing. 
But  it  is  a  condition  to  be  enjoyed 
also  by  groups  of  individuals,  and  to 
that  end  His  disciples  were  to  declare 
peace  to'  the  world. 

On  this  Easter  Day,  the  Risen 
Christ  beholds  in  the  world  not 
peace,  but  war. 

In  the  face  of  the  tragic  condition 
among  mankind,  honest  thinking 
men  and  women  ask  how  is  it  pos- 
sible to  reconcile  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  with  the  participation  of  the 
Church  in  armed  conflict. 

War  is  basically  selfish.  Its  roots 
feed  in  the  soil  of  envy,  hatred,  de- 
sire for  domination.   Its  fruit,  there- 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  0.  McKAY 


71 


fore,  is  always  bitter.  They  who 
cultivate  and  propagate  it  spread 
death  and  destruction,  and  are  ene- 
mies of  the  human  race. 

War  originates  in  the  hearts  of 
men  who  seek  to  despoil,  to  conquer, 
or  to  destroy  other  individuals  or 
groups  of  individuals.  Self  exalta- 
tion is  a  motivating  factor;  force,  the 
means  of  attainment.  War  is  re- 
bellious action  against  moral  order. 

The  present  war  had  its  beginning 
in  militarism,  a  false  philosophy 
which  believes  that  "war  is  a  bio- 
logical necessity  for  the  purification 
and  progress  of  nations."  It  pro- 
claims that  Might  determines  Right, 
and  that  only  the  strongest  nations 
should  survive  and  rule.  It  says, 
"the  grandeur  of  history  lies  in  the 
perpetual  conflict  of  nations,  and  it 
is  simply  foolish  to  desire  the  sup- 
pression of  their  rivalry." 

War  impels  you  to  hate  your  ene- 
mies. 

The  Prince  of  Peace  says,  Love 
your  enemies. 

War  says,  Curse  them  that  curse 
you. 

The  Prince  of  Peace  says,  Pray 
for  them  that  curse  you. 

War  says,  Injure  and  kill  them 
that  hate  you. 

The  Risen  Lord  says,  Do  good  to 
them  that  hate  you. 

War  Incompatible  with  the 
Teachings  of  the  Savior 

Thus  we  see  that  war  is  incom- 
patible with  Christ's  teachings.  The 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  gospel 
of  peace.  War  is  its  antithesis,  and 
produces  hate.  It  is  vain  to  attempt 
to  reconcile  war  with  true  Chris- 
tianity. 

Jn  the  face  of  all  this,  I  shall  seem 
inconsistent  when  I  declare  that 
I  uphold  our  country  in  the  gigantic 
task  it  has  assumed  in  the  present 
world    conflict,    and    sustain  the 


Church  in  its  loyal  support  of  the 
government  in  its  fight  against  dic- 
tatorship. 

In  justification  of  this  seeming  in- 
consistence, I  shall  not  attempt  to 
prove  that  there  are  occasions  when 
Jesus  would  approve  of  a  nation's 
starting  a  war.  That  He  used  force 
to  drive  from  the  temple  the  money 
changers,  and  other  desecrators  of 
the  House  of  God,  is  a  fact;  but  only 
a  misapplication  of  the  text  can  make 
that  incident  a  justification  for  one 
Christian  nation's  going  to  war 
against  another.  On  that  occasion, 
as  on  all  occasions,  Jesus  opposed 
and  denounced  wrong.  With  the 
strength  of  fiery  indignation  and  of 
his  own  moral  force,  and  not  merely 
with  a  whip  of  small  cords,  Jesus 
drove  the  self-convicted  desecrators 
from  the  temple. 

Neither  shall  I  attempt  to  prove 
that  He  favored  war  when  He  said: 
"Think  not  that  I  come  to  send  peace 
on  earth;  I  came  not  to  send  peace 
but  a  sword."  (Matt.  10:34)  They 
who  would  quote  this  saying  as  in- 
dicating that  Jesus  approves  of  war 
surely  put  a  strained  interpretation 
on  its  true  meaning,  which  refers 
most  clearly  to  the  incompatibility 
between  truth  and  error.  It  clearly 
refers  to  the  necessity  of  a  choice, 
which  has  been  made  by  thousands, 
between  accepting  the  gospel  or  con- 
tinuing in  ease  and  comfort  with  rel- 
atives. There  is  not  in  that  quota- 
tion any  justification  for  one  Chris- 
tian nation's  declaring  war  upon  an- 
other. 

Nor,  again,  would  I  try  to  justify 
my  seeming  inconsistency  by  refer- 
ring to  what  He  said  on  another  oc- 
casion as  follows: 

But  now,  he  that  hath  a  purse,  let  him 
take  it,  and  likewise  his  scrip;  and  he  that 
hath  no  sword,  let  him  sell  his  garment  and 
buy  one.  .  .  . 

And  they  said,  Lord,  behold  here  are 
two  swords,  And  he  said  unto  them,  it  is 
enough.  (Luke  22:36  and  38) 


72 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  April  5 

Without  reading  into  the  text 
something  which  is  not  intended  or 
even  implied,  the  most  that  one  can 
get  from  this  admonition  is  that 
henceforth  the  disciples  going  forth 
into  an  antagonistic  world  might 
supply  themselves  with  necessary 
support  and  the  usual  means  of  de- 
fense. 

None  of  these  sayings  of  the 
Savior's  can  be  taken  to  prove  that 
He  justifies  war. 

Tolstoy,  in  his  Christianity  and 
Patriotism,  says: 

A  Christian  state,  to  be  consistent,  ought, 
on  entering  upon  a  war,  not  merely  to  re- 
move the  crosses  from  the  churches,  to  turn 
the  churches  themselves  into  buildings  for 
other  purposes,  to  give  the  clergy  other 
duties,  and  above  all,  to  prohibit  the  gos- 
pel— but  ought  to  renounce  every  precept 
of  morality  which  follows  from  the  Chris- 
tian law. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  I  still 
say  that  there  are  conditions  when 
entrance  into  war  is  justifiable,  and 
when  a  Christian  nation  may,  with- 
out violation  of  principles,  take  up 
arms  against  an  opposing  force. 

Such  a  condition,  however,  is  not 
a  real  or  fancied  insult  given  by  one 
nation  to  another.  When  this  oc- 
curs proper  reparation  may  be  made 
by  mutual  understanding,  apology, 
or  by  arbitration. 

Neither  is  there  justifiable  cause 
found  in  a  desire  or  even  a  need  for 
territorial  expansion.  The  taking  of 
territory  implies  the  subjugation  of 
the  weak  by  the  strong — the  appli- 
cation of  the  jungle  law. 

Nor  is  war  justified  in  an  attempt 
to  enforce  a  new  order  of  govern- 
ment, or  even  to  impel  others  to  a 
particular  form  of  worship,  however 
better  the  government  or  eternally 
true  the  principles  of  the  enforced 
religion  may  be. 

There  are,  however,  two  condi- 
tions which  may  justify  a  truly  Chris- 
tian man  to  enter — mind  you,  I  say 
enter,  not  begin — a  war :  ( 1 )  An  at- 


Second  Day 

tempt  to  dominate  and  to  deprive 
another  of  his  free  agency,  and,  ( 2 ) 
Loyalty  to  his  country.  Possibly 
there  is  a  third,  viz.,  Defense  of  a 
weak  nation  that  is  being  unjustly 
crushed  by  a  strong,  ruthless  one. 

Man's  Free  Agency 
Fundamental  to  Progress 

Paramount  among  these  reasons, 
of  course,  is  the  defense  of  man's 
freedom.  An  attempt  to  rob  man  of 
his  free  agency  caused  dissension 
even  in  heaven.    Scriptures  tell  us: 

Michael  and  his  angels  fought  against 
the  dragon;  and  the  dragon  fought  and  his 
angels, 

And  prevailed  not;  neither  was  their  place 
found  any  more  in  heaven. 

And  the  great  dragon  was  cast  out,  that 
old  serpent,  called  the  Devil,  and  Satan, 
which  deceived]  the  whole  world;  he  was 
cast  out  into  the  earth,  and  his  angels  were 
cast  out  with  him. 

In  that  rebellion  Lucifer  said  in 
substance:  "By  the  law  of  force  I 
will  compel  the  human  family  to 
subscribe  to  the  eternal  plan,  but 
give  me  thine  honor  and  power." 

To  deprive  an  intelligent  human 
being  of  his  free  agency  is  to  commit 
the  crime  of  the  ages. 

Impelling  motives  of  this  arch- 
enemy to  liberty  were  pride,  ambi- 
tion, a  sense  of  superiority,  a  will  to 
dominate  his  fellows,  and  to  be  ex- 
alted above  them,  and  a  determina- 
tion to  deprive  human  beings  of  their 
freedom  to  speak  and  to  act  as  their 
reason  and  judgment  would  dictate. 
Applicable  to  him  are  the  words  of 
Isaiah: 

How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O 
Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning!  .  .  . 

For  thou  hast  said  in  thine  heart,  I  will 
ascend  into  heaven,  I  will  exalt  my  throne 
above  the  stars  of  God:  I  will  sit  also 
upon  the  mount  of  the  congregation,  in  the 
sides  of  the  north: 

I  will  ascend  above  the  heights  of  the 
clouds;  I  will  be  like  the  most  High. 

Yet  thou  shalt  be  brought  down  to  hell, 
to  the  sides  of  the  pit.  (Isaiah  14:12-15) 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  0.  McKAY 


73 


Thus  in  the  beginning  was  de- 
signed the  great  crime  against  man- 
hood, to  thwart 

The  wish,  which  ages  have  not  yet  subdued, 
In  man,  to  have  no  master  save  his  food. 

So  fundamental  in  man's  eternal 
progress  is  his  inherent  right  to 
choose,  that  the  Lord  would  defend 
it  even  at  the  price  of  war.  Without 
freedom  of  thought,  freedom  of 
choice,  freedom  of  action  within  law- 
ful bounds,  man  cannot  progress. 
The  Lord  recognized  this,  and  also 
the  fact  that  it  would  take  man  thou- 
sands of  years  to  make  the  earth 
habitable  for  self-governing  indi- 
viduals. Throughout  the  ages  ad- 
vanced souls  have  yearned  for  a  so- 
ciety in  which  liberty  and  justice  pre- 
vail. Men  have  sought  for  it,  fought 
for  it,  have  died  for  it.  Ancient 
freemen  prized  it,  slaves  longed  for 
it,  the  Magna  Charta  demanded  it, 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
declared  it. 

"This  love  of  liberty  which  God 
has  planted  in  us,"  said  Abraham 
Lincoln,  "constitutes  the  bulwark  of 
our  liberty  and  independence.  It  is 
not  our  frowning  battlements,  our 
bristling  seacoasts,  our  army,  and 
our  navy.  Our  defense  is  in  the 
spirit  which  prizes  liberty  as  the 
heritage  of  all  men,  in  all  lands, 
everywhere.  Destroy  this  spirit,  and 
we  have  planted  jhe  seeds  of  des- 
potism at  our  very  doors." 

Our  Obligation  to  the  State 

second  obligation  that  impels  us 
to  become  participants  in  this 
world  war  is  loyalty  to  government. 

We  believe  that  governments  were  in- 
stituted of  God  for  the  benefit  of  man; 
and  that  He  holds  men  accountable  for 
their  acts  in  relation  to  them,  both  in  making 
laws  and  administering  them,  for  the  good 
and  safety  of  society. 

We  believe  that  no  government  can 
exist  in  peace,  except  such  laws  are  framed 
and  held  inviolate  as  will  secure  to  each 
individual  the  free  exercise  of  conscience, 


the  right  and  control  of  property,  and  the 
protection  of  life. 

The  greatest  responsibility  of  the 
state  is  to  guard  the  lives,  and  to 
protect  the  property  and  rights  of 
its  citizens;  and  if  the  state  is  obli- 
gated to  protect  its  citizens  from 
lawlessness  within  its  boundaries,  it 
is  equally  obligated  to  protect  them 
from  lawless  encroachments  from 
without — whether  the  attacking 
criminals  be  individuals  or  nations. 

We  are  informed  by  competent 
authority  that  twenty  years  ago  the 
government  of  the  United  States  en- 
tered into  an  agreement  with  Japan 
to  maintain  peace  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  "keep  honorable  hands 
off  China."  "Before  the  year  was 
over,"  writes  Mark  J.  Gayn,  in  an 
article  Prelude  to  Treachery,  "the 
ablest  men  on  the  Japanese  naval 
general  staff  went  to  work  blue- 
printing war  on  the  United  States 
and  Britain." 

From  such  treachery  the  state  is 
in  duty  bound  to  protect  itself,  and 
its  only  effective  means  of  doing  so 
under  present  world  conditions  is  by 
armed  force.    As  a  Church: 

We  believe  that  all  men  are  justified  in 
defending  themselves,  their  friends,  and 
property,  and  the  government  from  the 
unlawful  assaults  and  encroachments  of 
all  persons  in  times  of  exigency,  where  im- 
mediate appeal  cannot  be  made  to  laws, 
and  relief  afforded.  (D.  &  C.  134:11) 

Even  though  we  sense  the  hellish 
origin  of  war,  even  though  we  feel 
confident  that  war  will  never  end 
war,  yet  under  existing  conditions 
we  find  ourselves  as  a  body  com- 
mitted to  combat  this  evil  thing. 
With  other  loyal  citizens  we  serve 
our  country  as  bearers  of  arms,  rather 
than  to  stand  aloof  to  enjoy  a  free- 
dom for  which  others  have  fought 
and  died. 

One  purpose  of  emphasizing  this 
theme  is  to  give  encouragement  to 
young  men  now  engaged  in  armed 


74 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  Aptil  5 

conflict  and  to  reassure  them  that 
they  are  fighting  for  an  eternal  prin- 
ciple fundamental  to  the  peace  and 
progress  of  mankind. 

Conclusion 
f^J-OD  bless  them  and  others  now 
registered  awaiting  the  call  to 
duty,  and  those  serving  in  defense! 
To  each  of  you  we  send  a  message  of 
confidence  and  trust.  Many  of  you 
before  entering  upon  your  military 
duties  were  authorized  messengers 
of  peace.  Others  of  you  also  hold 
the  Priesthood.  To  all  we  say,  in 
your  personal  habits  let  the  same 
ideals  guide  you  as  soldiers  in  the 
army  as  guided  you  as  missionaries. 
What  the  Lord  said  to  you  then  is 
applicable  to  you  now — 

Wherefore,  gird  up  your  loins,  and  take 
upon  you  my  whole  armor,  that  ye  may 
be  able  to  withstand  the  evil  day,  having 
done  all,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  stand. 

Stand,  therefore,  having  your  loins  girt 
about  with  truth,  having  on  the  breastplate 
of  righteousness,  and  your  feet  shod  with 
the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace. 
(D.  &  C.  27:15, 16) 

Keep  yourselves  morally  clean. 
Being  soldiers  or  sailors  is  not  justi- 
fication for  indulgence  in  vulgarity, 
intemperance,  or  immorality.  Others 
may  be  impelled  to  do  these  things 
because  of  the  beastliness  of  war,  but 
you  who  hold  the  Priesthood  cannot 
so  indulge  with  impunity.  For  your 
own  sweet  lives,  and  for  others  who 
trust  you,  keep  yourselves  unpol- 
luted. Your  loved  ones  believe  in 
you,  your  comrades  will  respect  you, 
your  officers  will  admire  you. 

Today  as  we  celebrate  the  resur- 
rection of  our  Lord  and  Savior,  there 


Second  Day 

is  a  cloud  of  spiritual  heaviness 
hanging  over  the  world,  as  there  was 
darkness  at  the  time  of  the  cruci- 
fixion. Let  us  hope  that  when  this 
mad  orgy  shall  have  ended,  that  the 
honest  in  heart  will  experience  a 
spiritual  resurrection  and  will  asso- 
ciate with  one  another  in  a  newness 
of  life.  As  seeds  of  future  wars  are 
often  sown  around  the  peace  table, 
may  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  not  the  spirit  of 
retaliation  and  revenge  actuate 
those  who  meet  to  determine  peace 
terms.  When  that  blessed  occasion 
comes,  may  the  representatives  of 
the  nations  recognize  the  inalienable 
rights  of  peoples  everywhere  to  gov- 
ern themselves.  It  would  be  appro- 
priate if  there  were  emblazoned  in 
golden  letters  on  the  walls  in  which 
they  meet,  and  especially  cherished 
as  motives  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
determine  the  conditions  of  peace, 
the  words  of  Christ  our  Lord:  "Love 
your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse 
you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you, 
and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully 
use  you,  and  persecute  you;  That 
ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Fa- 
ther which  is  in  heaven." 


O  Brother  Man 

Follow  with  reverent  steps  the  great  exam- 
ple 

Of  Him  whose  holy  work  was  "doing  good"; 
So  shall  the  wide  earth  seem  our  Father's 
temple, 

Each  loving  life  a  psalm  of  gratitude. 

Then  shall  all  shackles  fall;  the  stormy 
clangor 

Of  wild  music  o'er  the  earth  shall  cease; 
Love  shall  tread  out  the  baleful  fire  of  anger, 
And  in  its  ashes  plant  the  tree  of  peace! 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

The  congregation  will  now  sing,  "Praise  God  From  Whom  All  Bless- 
ings Flow"  (Hymn  Book,  page  149;  No.  17  in  the  Pamphlet). 

The  closing  prayer  will  be  offered  by  President  J.  Frank  Killian  of 
Emery  Stake. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 


75 


This  will  close  the  broadcast  of  the  Conference  today. 
The  closing  session  of  the  Conference  will  begin  tomorrow  morning — 
Monday- — at  10  a.  m.    That  session  will  be  broadcast  over  KSL. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "Praise  God  From  Whom  All 
Blessings  Flow"  (Hymn  Book,  page  149). 

The  closing  prayer  was  offered  by  Elder  J.  Frank  Killian,  President 
of  the  Emery  Stake. 

TESTIMONY  MEETING 

Between  the  hours  of  12:30  and  4:00  p.  m.  a  testimony  meeting  was 
held  in  the  assembly  room,  fifth  floor  of  the  Temple,  at  which  all  of  the 
General  Authorities  of  the  Church  were  present.  Presidents  of  Stakes 
and  their  Counselors  and  Presidents  of  High  Priests  Quorums  from  the 
various  Stakes  of  the  Church  were  also  in  attendance.  There  was  a  rich 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit  at  this  meeting.  Forty-three  testimonies  were 
borne,  and  very  many  of  those  present  were  disappointed  that  there  was 
not  sufficient  time  and  opportunity  for  them  to  participate. 

THIRD  DAY 
MORNING  MEETING 

The  concluding  session  of  the  Conference  was  held  in  the  Assembly 
Hall,  on  Temple  Square,  Monday  morning,  April  6,  at  10  o'clock. 

President  Grant  was  present  and  presided.  President  J.  Reuben  Clark, 
Jr.,  First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency,  conducted  the  services. 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

We  shall  now  commence  the  last  session  of  the  One  Hundred  and 
Twelfth  Annual  Conference  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints.  We  are  meeting  in  the  Assembly  Hall,  on  Temple  Square.  Presi- 
dent Grant  is  present  and  presiding,  President  Clark  is  at  his  request  con- 
ducting the  service. 

There  are  present  on  the  stand  the  First  Presidency,  the  Council  of 
the  Twelve,  the  five  Assistants  to  the  Twelve,  the  First  Council  of  Seventy 
and  the  Presiding  Bishopric. 

The  singing  will  be  by  the  congregation.  Elder  J.  Spencer  Cornwall 
is  conducting,  and  Elder  Frank  W.  Asper  is  at  the  organ. 

The  opening  song  will  be  "Do  What  is  Right"  (Hymn  Book,  page 
165;  No.  7  in  the  Pamphlet). 

Singing  by  the  congregation,  "Do  What  Is  Right"  ( Hymn  Book,  page 
165). 

Opening  prayer  by  Elder  Wilford  G.  Edling,  President  of  the  Los 
Angeles  Stake. 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "Praise  To  The  Man"  (Hymn 
Book,  page  325 ) . 


76  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 

Monday,  April  6  Third  Day 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

Elder  Orval  W.  Adams  will  now  give  the  report  of  the  Church  Audit- 
ing Committee. 

ELDER  ORVAL  W.  ADAMS 

Of  the  Church  Auditing  Committee 

"President  Heber  J.  Grant  and  Counselors 

47  East  South  Temple  Street 

City 

Dear  Brethren: 

We  have  examined  the  Financial  Report  of  the  Church  for  the  year 
1941.  The  accounting  system  is  modern,  the  records  are  complete  and 
accurate.  The  many  activities  have  been  handled  at  a  minimum  of  expense. 
The  budget  is  in  balance.  The  properties  of  the  Church  are  clear  of 
encumbrance,  and  the  Church  is  free  of  debt. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Orval  W.  Adams 
Albert  E.  Bowen 
George  S.  Spencer 
H.  H.  Bennett 

Church  Auditing  Committee" 

ANNUAL  REPORT 

President  David  O.  McKay,  Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 
read  the  Annual  Report,  as  follows: 

FINANCIAL  STATEMENT  Temples 

The  expenditures  by  the  Church  for  the  ExPended  for  the  mainten- 
vp,r  1041.  ance,  operation,  and  con- 
y  ,  struction  of  temples   515,269.82 

Stake  and  Ward  Purposes  Hospitals 

For  the  erection  of  meeting-  Expended    for   the  erection 

houses  and  for  ward  and  and  maintenance  of  hos- 

stake  maintenance  expenses..$l, 892,335.54        pital  buildings  (included  in 

,,.  Church  Welfare  program)..  13,105.36 

Missionary  Work 

For  the  maintenance  and  oper-  Relief  Assistance 

ation  of  missions,  and  for 

the  erection  of  places  of  For  direct  aid  in  the  care  of 
worship  and  other  buildings  the  needy  and  other  char- 
in  the  missions                       641,050.10        itable  purposes,  including 

hospital  treatment.    ( From 
Education  tithing  funds  only.  Included 

in   Church   Welfare  pro- 
Expended   for  the  mainten-  gram)    462,822.02 


ance  of  Church  school  sys- 
tem   895,452.57       Total  $4,420,035.41 


FINANCIAL  STATEMENT 


77 


Which  has  been  taken  from 
the  tithes  and  other  Church 
funds  and  returned  by  the 
Trustee-in-Trust  to  the 
Saints  for  the  maintenance 
and  operation  of  the  stakes 
and  wards,  mission  activ- 
ities, for  the  maintenance 
and  operation  of  Church 
schools  and  temples,  for 
hospital  buildings  and  relief 
assistance. 

CHURCH  WELFARE  PROGRAM 

Church    membership,  stakes 

and  missions   

Number  of  Church  members 
who  paid  voluntary  fast 
offerings  and  welfare  con- 
tributions to  help  the  needy: 

In  wards   

In  missions   

Total  

Percent  of  Church  member- 
ship who  paid  fast  offer- 
ings and  welfare  contri- 
butions   

Amount    of    voluntary  fast 


892,080 


155,877 
15,980 


offerings  and  welfare  con- 
tributions: 


171,857 

26.3% 

573,633.53 
87,191.76 

21,532.68 

$  682,357.97 


In  wards: 

Fast  offerings  

Welfare  contributions  re- 
ceipted for  by  bishops 
In  missions: 

Fast  offerings   

Total  (all  expended  for 
relief)   

Disbursed  to  the  needy  by 
the  Relief  Society  for  di- 
rect assistance  in  their 
homes  and  for  general  wel- 
fare purposes,  such  as 
surgical  appliances  and 
preventive  and  corrective 
health  work   

For  carrying  on  the  general, 
welfare,  and  educational 
program  of  the  Relief 
Society  

Expended  from  the  tithes  for 
general  and  local  relief  

Expended  directly  by  the 
Church  Welfare  commit- 
tee  $  136,529.49 

Expended  for  hospital  care  of 
the  sick  in  addition  to  the 
amount  reported  disbursed 
from  the  tithes   90,918.89 

Total  $1,682,761.53 


..$  96,898.83 

349,763.82 
326,292.53 


124,599  persons  received  as- 
sistance during  the  year, 
which  is  an  average  of 
10,383  per  month. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing, 
the  following  supplies  had 
been  assembled  and  were 
on  hand  December  31,  1941, 
and  are  available  to  the 
needy  during  the  year  1942: 

Clothing  and  Bedding 

8,906  pieces  of  men's  cloth- 

of  women's 

children's 


ing  

13,841  pieces 

clothing  ... 
14,655  pieces  of 

clothing   

28,744  other  articles  of  cloth- 
ing 


5,537.26 
7,599.15 
5,812.75 


2,249  quilts  and  blankets. 


Total 


7,797.48 
4,827.11 


..$  31,573.75 


Canned  and  Dried  Fruits  and  Vegetables 

1,073,610  cans  of  fruits  and 

vegetables  ..$  109,995.55 

37,077  bottles  of  fruits  and 

vegetables   3,869.38 

71,970  cans  and  bottles  of 

jam,  marmalade,  etc.  14,348.01 

28,861  cans  and  bottles  of 

meat    6,683.88 

92,700  miscellaneous  can- 
ned goods   9,999.19 

57,341  pounds  of  dried 
fruits  and  vege- 
tables   2,760.99 

65,089  pounds  of  miscel- 
laneous foodstuffs....  9,632.21 


Total  $  157,289.21 

Other  Produce 

258,561  pounds  of  flour.  ..$  5,224.46 

546,935  pounds  of  potatoes....  5,413.32 

550,369  pounds  of  grain   8,701.03 

33,199  pounds  of  fresh  meat.  4,237.57 
263,475  pounds    of  produce 

and  vegetables    3,702.80 

72,001  pounds  of  miscellane- 
ous   4,076.96 


Total   $  31,356.14 

Coal,  Wood,  Lumber,  Miscellaneous 

362,600  pounds     (181  3/10 

ton)  coal   $  1,093.45 

56  cords  of  wood   431.72 

7,341  board  feet  of  lumber  247.46 

5,602  miscellaneous  articles  1,704.49 


Total 


3,477.12 


78 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Monday,  April  6 

Total  inventory  val- 
uation December  31, 

1941   $  223,696.22 

Stake  and  regional  storehouses  disbursed  in 
1941,  $290,828.99  of  merchandise  pro- 
duced by  the  Welfare  program. 
The  extent  to  which  the  Welfare  program 
is  meeting  the  requirements  of  the  bishops 
in  caring  for  the  needy  is  indicated  by 
the  following  percentages: 
Food  v  Percent 

Program-produced   65.4 

Cash  purchases   34.6 

Clothing 

Program-produced   58 

Cash  purchases   42 

Fuel 

Program-produced   78.4 

Cash  purchases   21.6 

Other  Commodities 

Program-produced  60 

Cash  purchases   40 

334,739.19  bushels  of  wheat  are  stored  in  the 
Church  owned  elevators. 

Fast  Offering  Information 

Average  fast  offerings  and  welfare  con- 
tribution per  capita  in  wards  $1.11 

Regions  with  the  highest  per  capita: 

Arizona  $1.50 

Bannock    1.16 

Northern  California   1.14 

Salt  Lake    1.14 

Southern  California    1.14 

Stakes  with  the  highest  per  capita: 

Malad  $2.27 

Maricopa    2.00 

Sacramento    2.00 

South  Los  Angeles   1.98 

Missions  with  the  highest  per  capita: 
Membership  less  than  1500 

Japan  $2.29 

Brazil  -  78 

Argentine   63 

Membership  over  1500 

Eastern  States   50 

North  Central  States   43 

Northern  States  37 

Summary — Church  Building  Program 

Expended  for  the  erection,  im- 
provement and  furnishing 
of: 

Ward  and  stake  buildings....$  918,358.91 

Mission  buildings   1 60,753.56 

Temple  buildings    305,426.77 

Institutes  and  seminaries   61,787.16 

Hospital  buildings    4,950.15 

Other  buildings    19,184.86 

Amount  raised  locally  for 

building  improvements   948,215.40 

Total   $2,418,676.81 


Third  Day 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  $110,347.11 
was  expended  for  the  erection  of  a  nurses' 
home  and  for  equipment  at  the  Idaho  Falls  / 
Hospital,  Idaho  Falls,  Idaho;  $41,669.05  ' 
for  equipment  at  the  Thomas  D.  Dee  Hos- 
pital, Ogden,  Utah,  and  $6,783.97  for  equip- 
ment at  the  Dr.  W.  H.  Groves  L.  D.  S. 
Hospital,  Salt  Lake  Citv.  Total  $158,800.13 

Organization  Statistics  for  the 
Year  1941 

Number  of  stakes  December  31,  1941: 
138  (at  the  present  time  141) :  1,106  wards 
and  118  independent  branches,  or  a  total 
of  1,224  wards  and  branches  in  the  stakes 
of  Zion.  According  to  the  last  complete 
reports,  there  were  35  missions,  1,002  mis- 
sion branches  and  250  districts.  Because  of 
the  war,  it  has  been  impossible  to  obtain 
reports  from  Europe  for  the  past  two  years. 

Church  Membership 

Stakes   736,544 

Missions  155,536 


Total 


.892,080 


Church  Growth 
Children  blessed  and  entered  on  the 

records  of  the  Church  in  the  stakes 

and  missions   22,629 

Children  baptized  in  the  stakes  and 

missions    15,141 

Converts  baptized  in  the  stakes  and 

missions   7,555 

Missionaries 

(The  following  figures  include  all  the 
lady  missionaries.) 
Number  of  long-term  missionaries 

from  Zion  December  31,  1941   2,253 

Number  of  short-term  missionaries 

34 
80 


from  Zion  December  31,  1941. 
Number  of  local  missionaries  


Total  number  of  missionaries  in  the 

missions  of  the  Church    2,367 

Number  engaged  in  missionary  work 

in  the  stakes    2,399 


Total  missionaries   4,766 

Number  of  missionaries  who  re- 
ceived training  in  the  Missionary 

Home    1,196 

Social  Statistics 
Birth  rate  33.2  per  thousand 
Marriage  rate  19.6  per  thousand 
Death  rate  5.5  per  thousand 

Expended  for  the  Maintenance  of 
Missionaries 
Collected  by  wards  and  paid 
to  missionaries  $  76,255.50 


STATISTICS 


79 


Average  cost  per  missionary 
1941,  $32.50  per  month  or  a 
total  of  $390.00  per  year  per 
missionary.  Average  num- 
ber of  missionaries  Decem- 
ber 31,  1941,  2,180,  making 
the  total  average  expense 
for  the  year  of   $  850,200.00 

Estimated  possible  earnings 
per  missionary  $900.00  per 
year  x  2,180,  average  num- 
ber _  of  missionaries,  make 
an  estimated  total  of  what 
these  missionaries  might 
have  earned  if  at  home  of..$  1,962,000 .00 


Total  estimated  contribution 
of  missionaries  and  their 
families  for  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  $2,888,455.50 

WARD  AND  BRANCH  CHANGES 
AND  DEATHS 

Changes  in  Church  officers,  stake,  ward, 
and  branch  organizations  since  last  October 
Conference — 1941. 

Special  Appointments 

Eugene  J.  Neff,  former  bishop  of  the  East 
Mill  Creek  Ward,  appointed  to  direct  the 
Joseph  Smith  Memorial  Farm  at  South 
Royalton,  Vermont,  succeeding  Angus  J. 
Cannon. 

Joseph  Christensen,  former  recorder  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Temple,  appointed  as  Field  Sup- 
ervisor of  the  Genealogical  Society. 

New  Mission  Presidents 

William  H.  Reeder,  Jr.,  former  president 
of  the  Mount  Ogden  Stake,  appointed  to 
succeed  President  Levi  Edgar  Young  of  the 
New  England  Mission. 

Desla  S.  Bennion,  appointed  to  succeed 
Nicholas  G.  Smith  as  president  of  the  North- 
western States  Mission. 

Changes  in  Officers 

German  E.  Ellsworth  of  Mesa,  Arizona, 
appointed  to  preside  over  the  newly-formed 
Northern  California  Mission  with  head- 
quarters at  No.  5  Buena  Vista  Terrace,  San 
Francisco,  California. 

W.  W.  Seegmiller,  former  President  of 
the  Western  States  Mission,  appointed  to 
succeed  John  Alden  Bowers  as  president  of 
the  Brazilian  Mission. 

Rufus  K.  Hardy,  of  the  First  Council  of 
Seventy,  appointed  as  temporary  president 
of  the  Southern  California  Mission  while 
President  Henry  H.  Blood  is  on  leave  of 
absence. 


New  Stakes  Organized 

South  Ogden  Stake  was  organized  De- 
cember 7,  1941,  by  a  division  of  the  Mount 
Ogden  Stake  and  consists  of  the  Ogden  9th, 
Ogden.  14th,  Ogden  18th,  Ogden  26th,  Og- 
den 27th,  Ogden  28th,  South  Weber,  and 
Uintah  Wards.  The  Mount  Ogden  Stake 
is  now  composed  of  Ogden  5th,  Ogden  12th, 
Ogden  17th,  Ogden  23rd,  Ogden  24th, 
Mount  Ogden,  and  Poland  Wards  and  the 
Montello  Branch. 

The  Farr  West  Stake  was  organized  Jan- 
uary 18,  1942,  by  a  division  of  the  North 
Weber  Stake,  and  consists  of  Farr  West, 
Harrisville,  Marriott,  Ogden  Tenth  (north 
half),  Ogden  Fifteenth,  Plain  City,  and 
Slaterville  Wards.  The  North*  Weber 
Stake  is  now  composed  of  Grouse  Creek, 
Ogden  Third,  Ogden  Tenth  (south  half), 
Ogden  Sixteenth,  Taylor,  Warren,  West 
Weber,  and  Wilson  Wards  and  the  West 
Warren  Branch. 

Lakeview  Stake  was  organized  March  22, 
1942,  by  a  division  of  the  Weber  Stake  and 
consists  of  the  Clinton,  Hooper,  Kanesville, 
Riverdale,  and  Roy  Wards.  The  Weber 
Stake  is  composed  of  Ogden  First,  Ogden 
Second,  Ogden  Eleventh,  Ogden  Nine- 
teenth, and  Ogden  Twenty-second  Wards. 
Stake  Presidents  Chosen 

William  W.  Owens  chosen  president  of 
the  Cache  Stake,  to  succeed  Alma  Sonne. 

John  D.  Hill  chosen  president  of  the 
Oquirrh  Stake,  to  succeed  President  H.  Ed- 
ward Sutton. 

Thomas  B.  Croft  chosen  president  of  the 
Big  Horn  Stake,  to  succeed  President  Archie 
R.  Boyack. 

Paul  R.  Wynn  chosen  president  of  the 
Oneida  Stake,  to  succeed  President  George 
E.  Burgi. 

Earl  S.  Paul  chosen  president  of  the 
Mount  Ogden  Stake,  to  succeed  President 
William  H.  Reeder,  Jr. 

William  J.  Critchlow,  Jr.,  chosen  president 
of  the  newly-organized  South  Ogden  Stake. 

George  Sylvester  Heiner  chosen  president 
of  the  Morgan  Stake,  to  succeed  President 
M.  Howard  Randall. 

Harold  R.  Morris  chosen  president  of  the 
Deseret  Stake,  to  succeed  President  Joseph 
T.  Finlinson.  v 

Jesse  M.  Walker  chosen  president  of  the 
Alpine  Stake,  to  succeed  President  Clifford 
E.  Young. 

Wilmer  J.  Maw  chosen  president  of  the 
newly-organized  Farr  West  Stake. 

Thomas  O.  Smith  chosen  president  of  the 
North  Weber  Stake,  to  succeed  President 
Thomas  M.  Irvine. 

Joell  Garrett  Sedgwick  chosen  president 
of  the  San  Bernardino  Stake,  to  succeed 
President  Albert  L.  Larsen. 


80 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Monday,  April  6 

Joseph  I.  Williams  chosen  president  of 
the  Woodruff  Stake,  to  succeed  President 
James  Brown,  Jr. 

John  Child  chosen  president  of  the  newly- 
organized  Lakeview  Stake. 

New  Wards  Organized 

Seventh  Ward,  Provo  Stake,  formed  by  a 
division  of  the  Bonneville  and  First  Wards. 

Eighth  Ward,  Provo  Stake,  formed  by  a 
division  of  the  Fifth  Ward. 

Ninth  Ward,  Provo  Stake,  formed  by  a 
division  of  the  Manavu  Ward. 

Kelly-Toponce  Ward,  Idaho  Stake, 
formed  by  the  merging  of  the  Kelly  and 
Toponce  Wards. 

Union  First  Ward,  East  Jordan  Stake, 
formed  by  a  division  of  the  Union  Ward. 

Union  Second  Ward,  East  Jordan  Stake, 
formed  by  a  division  of  the  Union  Ward. 

Hyland  Ward,  Mount  Ogden  Stake, 
formed  by  a  division  of  the  Mount  Ogden 
Ward. 

Twenty-third  Ward,  Mount  Ogden  Stake, 
formed  by  a  division  of  the  Seventeenth 
Ward. 

Twenty-fourth  Ward,  Mount  Ogden 
Stake,  formed  by  a  division  of  the  Fifth  and 
Twelfth  Wards. 

Ogden  Tenth  (north  half),  Farr  West 
Stake,  formed  by  a  division  of  the  Ogden 
Tenth  Ward  of  the  North  Weber  Stake. 

Ogden  Tenth  (south  half) ,  North  Weber 
Stake,  formed  by  a  division  of  the  Ogden 
Tenth  Ward  of  the  North  Weber  Stake. 

Twenty-sixth  Ward,  South  Ogden  Stake, 
formed  by  a  division  of  the  Eighteenth 
Ward  (west  half) . 

Twenty-seventh  Ward,  South  Ogden 
Stake,  formed  by  a  division  of  the  Ninth 
Ward  (south  half). 

Twenty-eighth  Ward,  South  Ogden 
Stake,  formed  by  a  division  of  the  Four- 
teenth Ward  (north  half). 

College  Ward,  San  Diego  Stake,  formed 
by  a  division  of  the  Fairmont  Ward,  and 
adding  the  LaMesa  Independent  Branch. 

Independent  Branches  Made  Wards 

Bellflower  Ward,  Long  Beach  Stake, 
formerly  Bellflower  Branch. 

Olympia  Ward,  Seattle  Stake,  formerly 
Olympia  Branch. 

Barnum  Ward,  Denver  Stake,  formerly 
Barnum.  Branch. 

Redwood  City  Ward,  San  Francisco 
Stake,  formerly  Redwood  City  Branch. 

Baltimore  Ward,  Washington  Stake, 
formerly  Baltimore  Branch. 

New  Independent  Branches 

San  Fernando  Branch,  San  Fernando 
Stake. 

St.  Johns  Branch,  Portland  Stake. 


Third  Day 

Shelton  Branch,  Seattle  Stake. 
Clifton  Branch,  Mount  Graham  Stake. 
Morenci  Branch,  Mount  Graham  Stake. 

Wards  Made  Independent  Branch 

Central  Ward,  St.  George  Stake,  formerly 
ward  of  same  stake. 

Elberta  Ward,  Santaquin-Tintic  Stake, 
formerly  ward  of  same  stake. 

Wards  Transferred 

Ogden  Ninth,  Ogden  Fourteenth,  Ogden 
Eighteenth,  South  Weber,  and  Uintah 
Wards  transferred  from  Mount  Ogden 
Stake  to  the  newly-formed  South  Ogden 
Stake. 

Farr  West,  Harrisville,  Marriott,  Ogden 
Tenth,  (north  half) ,  Ogden  Fifteenth,  Plain 
City,  and  Slaterville  Wards,  transferred 
from  the  North  Weber  Stake  to  the  newly- 
formed  Farr  West  Stake. 

Clinton,  Hooper,  Kanesville,  Riverdale, 
and  Roy  Wards  transferred  from  the  We- 
ber Stake  to  the  newly-formed  Lakeview 
Stake. 

Wards  Disorganized 

Kelly  and  Toponce  Wards,  Idaho  Stake, 
merged — new  ward  to  be  known  as  the 
Kelly-Toponce  Ward. 

Union  Ward,  East  Jordan  Stake,  di- 
vided, new  wards  to  be  known  as  the  Union 
First  Ward  and  Union  Second  Ward. 

Independent  Branches  Disorganized 

LaMesa  Branch,  San  Diego  Stake — dis- 
organized and  became  part  of  the  new  Col- 
lege Ward. 

Daniels  Branch,  Malad  Stake — discon- 
tinued and  annexed  to  Malad  Ward. 
Obituaries 

Elias  S.  Woodruff,  former  bishop  of  the 
Fourteenth  Ward,  Salt  Lake  Stake  and  For- 
est Dale  Ward,  Granite  Stake;  former  Mis- 
sion President  of  the  Western  States  and 
Central  States  Missions;  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  field  representative  of  the  Church 
Welfare  Committee,  died  November  16, 
1941. 

Andrew  Jenson,  former  Scandinavian  Mis- 
sion President  and  Assistant  Church  His- 
torian, died  November  18,  1941. 

T.  Albert  Hooper,  member  of  the  Deseret 
Sunday  School  Union  General  Board;  man- 
ager of  Deseret  Book  Store  for  32  years; 
died  November  29,  1941. 

Mrs.  Minnie  Home  James,  former  mem- 
ber of  the  General  Board  of  Relief  Society, 
died  December  11,  1941. 

Miss  Afton  Young,  former  member  of  the 
General  Board  of  the  Primary  Association; 
had  served  in  office  about  20  years,  died 
December  21,  1941. 

Mrs.  Geneva  Ballantyne  Sonne,  wife  of 
Alma  Sonne,  former  Cache  Stake  President 
and  present  assistant  to  the  Council  of 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  0.  McKAY 


81 


Twelve,  died  December  23,  1941. 

Jacob  F.  Gates,  four  times  filled  a  mis- 
sion for  the  Church,  former  superintendent 
of  the  Church  Sugar  Plantation  at  Laie; 
oldest  living  alumnus  of  the  University  of 
Utah,  died  January  22,  1942. 

Guy  C.  Wilson,  noted  Church  educator, 
died  January  27,  1942. 

Miss  Ann  Nebeker,  former  member  of  the 
Y.  W.  M.  I.  A.  and  Primary  General 
Boards;  director  of  the  Deseret  Gymnasium 
and  L.  D.  S.  Children's  Hospital  at  the  time 
of  her  death,  January  21,  1942.. 

Miss  Agnes  Campbell,  former  member 
of  the  Y.  W.  M.  I.  A.  General  Board  for 
nearly  50  years,  former  business  manager  of 


the  Young  Woman's  Journal,  died  Febru- 
ary 19,  1942. 

Arthur  Welling,  former  bishop  of  the 
Liberty  Ward,  Liberty  Stake;  Garland 
Ward,  Bear  River  Stake;  former  president 
of  the  North  Central  States  Mission,  died 
March  8,  1942. 

Campbell  M.  Brown,  member  of  the 
Church  Welfare  Committee,  died  March  2 1 , 
1942. 

Bishops  Who  Have  Passed  Away  While 
in  the  Service 

Bishop  David  C.  Gardner,  Lund  Ward, 
Nevada  Stake,  died  October  13,  1941,  after 
having  served  over  V/i  years. 


Singing  by  the  congregation,  "O  Ye  Mountains  High"  (Hymn  Book, 
page  376 ) . 

PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 

Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 


These  are  days  of  so  much  con- 
fusion and  misunderstanding,  that 
we  think  it  well  to  give  some  sta- 
tistics covering  matters  not  directly 
touched  in  the  regular  annual  report.  In 
considering  what  follows  it  should  be 
remembered  that  the  Church — in  its 
wards  and  stakes — has  only  some  736,- 
000  members,  including  men,  women, 
and  children.1 

The  Church  is  trying  to  do  its  full 
share  in  supporting  quasi-governmental 
charitable  and  semi-charitable  institu- 
tions. For  example,  the  Church  is  one 
of  the  largest  if  not  the  largest  single 
contributor  to  the  Community  Chest 
in  the  Salt  Lake  area  and  has  been  for 
years.  It  has  on  occasion  taken  a  sim- 
ilar position  in  other  areas. 

We  are  the  largest  single  contrib- 
utor in  this  area  to  the  Red  Cross.  In 
addition  to  our  Red  Cross  local  con- 
tributions, we  have  given  to  the  national 
Red  Cross  in  Washington  very  large 
sums,  and  expect  to  add  to  these  from 
time  to  time. 

In  so  far  as  contributions  towards  for- 
eign sufferers  in  war-ridden  countries  is 
concerned,  we  have  sent  considerable 
sums  (running  into  thousands  of  dol- 
lars) to  those  countries  to  help  our 
needy  Church  membership  there  and 
have  made  available  for  charitable 
purposes  considerable  local  funds  in 
those  countries. 


We  were  arranging  to  bear  the  ex- 
pense of  bringing  here  refugee  children 
from  Europe,  and  of  caring  for  them 
after  their  arrival,  but  the  hazards  of 
war  stopped  the  movement  of  children 
to  this  country. 

We  have  made  a  sizable  contribution 
in  furtherance  of  the  effort  to  stamp  out 
social  diseases  in  and  around  our  army 
camps. 

We  have  made  contributions  (also 
running  into  thousands  of  dollars) 
direct  to  foreign  governmental  agencies 
to  assist  them  in  caring  for  the  war- 
distressed. 

Our  women  are  aiding,  through  our 
Relief  Society,  in  sewing  and  other 
activities,  in  behalf  of  our  soldiers  and 
our  poor  and  needy. 

So  far  as  looking  after  the  poor  and 
needy  of  the  Church,  a  problem  that 
promises  to  become  increasingly  diffi- 
cult because  we  must  face  the  possi- 
bility soon  of  adding  many  to  that  un- 
fortunate class,  the  record  and  achieve- 
ment of  our  Welfare  plan  speak  with 
no  uncertain  voice.  These  reports  have 
just  been  read  and  it  is  unnecessary  to 
repeat  them  here,  more  than  to  say  that 
for  these  welfare  purposes — many  of 
which  are  usually  called  charitable  by 
others — we  expended  during  1941  a 
total  of  almost  $2,000,000,  of  which 
sum  $290,828  was  raised  by  purely  wel- 
fare projects,  that  is,  by  gratuitous  serv- 


82 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Monday,  April  6 

ice  to  welfare  agencies.  This  does  not 
include  the  really  large  amount  fur- 
nished in  neighbor  to  neighbor  help,  nor 
the  aid  given  through  the  Priesthood 
quorums  to  their  members. 

In  the  matter  of  public — that  is  na- 
tional— financing,  the  Church  is  doing 
at  least  its  full,  even  to  a  bounteous, 
share. 

The  Church  itself  and  the  three  banks 
and  one  insurance  company  which  it 
controls,  own  outright  more  than 
$  1 7,500,000  worth  of  government  bonds, 
long  and  short  term,  which  is  more  than 
$23.77  for  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  in  the  wards  and  stakes  of  the 
Church.  This  takes  no  account  of  the 
private  holdings  of  the  people  which  will 
run  into  considerable  figures,  though  as 
the  bulk  of  our  people  are  moderately 
circumstanced,  their  private  holdings 
will  likewise  be  moderate.  We  feel  this 
is  a  very  large  contribution,  but  we  an- 
ticipate it  will  be  somewhat  increased 
later.  In  saying  this,  we  wish  to  empha- 
size that  the  Church  is  not  only  not  enor- 
mously wealthy  but  is,  on  the  contrary, 
as  moderately  circumstanced  as  its 
members.  It  has  no  holdings  of  railroad 
bonds  or  stocks,  nor  of  national  indus- 
trial stocks.  Its  bond  and  stock  invest- 
ments, moderate  as  they  are,  are  almost 
exclusively  confined  to  local  industries 
which  it  helped  to  establish,  and  which 
are  almost  wholly  owned  by  local  peo- 
ple. 

The  Church  membership  has  fur- 
nished at  least  its  full  quota  to  the  armed 
service  of  the  United  States,  if  the 
newspaper  estimates  of  the  present  size 
of  our  army  are  even  approximately 
accurate. 

A  survey  just  now  completing  shows 
that  out  of  a  total  Church  membership 
of  531,626,  concerning  which  we  have 
complete  returns,2  there  have  been  3,847 
inducted  into  the  service  through  local 
boards;  5,335  have  volunteered  into  the 
United  States  army  and  navy,  and  395 
into  the  armed  forces  of  other  countries, 
2,161  have  entered  our  own  armed 
service  as  members  of  national  guard 
units;  488  have  entered  the  service  as 
reserve  officers;  while  13,578  are  em- 
ployed in  defense  industries.  This 


Third  Day 

gives  a  total  of  12,226  Church  mem- 
bers for  the  armed  service,  and  for  both 
armed  service  and  defense  work  a  total 
of  25,804  Church  members.8 

A  disturbing  factor  in  our  returns  is 
this — they  seem  to  show  that  a  dispro- 
portionate number  are  being  taken  from 
rural  communities  for  the  fighting  serv- 
ice. A  survey  of  certain  rural  wards 
shows  that  out  of  a  Church  population 
of  389,178  some  9,131  were  taken  into 
the  army  and  navy.  Out  of  an  urban 
population  of  113,280,  there  were  2,278 
who  went  into  the  armed  forces. 

This  disparity  between  rural  and 
urban  participation  will  probably  be 
eliminated  as  time  goes  on. 

There  appears  to  be  a  like  disparity 
between  the  numbers  engaged  in  de- 
fense works,  the  cities  contributing 
more  than  the  country.  It  may  be  as- 
sumed that  this  difference  will  also  dis- 
appear. 

From  any  point  of  view,  it  may  be 
confidently  stated  that  the  members  of 
the  Church  and  the  Church  itself  are 
making  their  full  proportionate  contri- 
bution in  the  present  emergency. 

Wofe:  The  total  membership  of  892,080  includes 
the  missions  in  America  and  abroad.  (See  page 
296.)  Ed. 

2Note:  It  should  be  emphasized  that  these  figures 
do  not  represent  the  entire  Church  contribution  to 
these  activities  but  only  a  partial  return  based  on 
531,626  members. 

8Note:  On  the  basis  of  this  statistical  sample, 
complete  returns  for  the  total  736,544  member- 
ship in  the  wards  and  stakes  of  the  Church  would 
approximate  5,329  inducted  into  the  service  through 
local  boards;  7,391  who  have  volunteered  into  the 
U.  S.  army  and  navy;  547  into  the  armed  forces  of 
other  countries;  2,993  who  have  entered  our  own 
armed  service  as  members  of  national  guard  units; 
676  who  have  entered  the  service  as  reserve  officers: 
18,810  employed  in  defense  industries.  This  gives  a 
total  of  16,936  from  the  wards  and  stakes  in  the 
armed  service,  and  for  both  armed  service  and  de- 
fense industries  a  total  of  35,746  Church  members. 

Likewise,  these  figures  would  also  indicate  that 
complete  returns  for  the  entire  Church  membership 
of  wards,  stakes,  and  missions  would  approximate 
6,455  inducted  into  service  through  local  boards; 
8,952  who  have  volunteered  into  the  U.  S.  army  and 
navy;  662  into  the  armed  forces  of  other  countries: 
3,626  who  have  entered  our  own  armed  service  as 
members  of  national  guard  units;  818  who  have  en- 
tered service  as  reserve  officers;  22,783  men  em- 
ployed in  defence  industries.  This  gives  a  total  of 
20,513  Church  members  for  the  armed  service,  and 
for  both  armed  service  and  defense  work,  a  total 
of  43,296  Church  members. 

The  impressiveness  of  this  contribution  on  the  part 
of  fewer  than  nine  hundred  thousand  people  will  be 
appreciated  by  those  who  take  time  to  compare  these 
figures  with  the  per  capita  contribution  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole.— Ed. 


GENERAL  AUTHORITIES  SUSTAINED 


83 


GENERAL  AUTHORITIES  OF  THE  CHURCH  SUSTAINED 

President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency, 
presented  for  the  vote  of  the  Conference  the  General  Authorities,  General 
Officers,  and  General  Auxiliary  Officers,  of  the  Church,  and  they  were 
unanimously  sustained  by  those  present,  as  follows: 

Heber  J.  Grant,  Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator,  and  President  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 

J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency. 

David  O.  McKay,  Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  COUNCIL  OF  THE  TWELVE  APOSTLES 

Rudger  Clawson 

COUNCIL  OF  THE  TWELVE  APOSTLES 

Rudger  Clawson  John  A.  Widtsoe 

George  Albert  Smith  Joseph  F.  Merrill 

George  F.  Richards  Charles  A.  Callis 

Joseph  Fielding  Smith  Albert  E.  Bowen 

Stephen  L  Richards  Sylvester  Q.  Cannon 

Richard  R.  Lyman  Harold  B.  Lee 

ACTING  PATRIARCH  TO  THE  CHURCH 

George  F.  Richards 
The  Counselors  in  the  First  Presidency,  the  Twelve  Apostles,  and 
the  Acting  Patriarch  to  the  Church  as  Prophets,  Seers  and  Revelators. 

ASSISTANTS  TO  THE  TWELVE 

Marion  G.  Romney  Clifford  E.  Young 

Thomas  E.  McKay  Alma  Sonne 

Nicholas  G.  Smith 

TRUSTEE-IN-TRUST 

Heber  J.  Grant 

THE  FIRST  COUNCIL  OF  THE  SEVENTY 

Levi  Edgar  Young  John  H.  Taylor 

Antoine  R.  Ivins  Rufus  K.  Hardy 

Samuel  O.  Bennion  Richard  L.  Evans 

Oscar  A.  Kirkham 

PRESIDING  BISHOPRIC 

LeGrand  Richards,  Presiding  Bishop 
Marvin  O.  Ashton,  First  Counselor 
Joseph  L.  Wirthlin,  Second  Counselor 

GENERAL  OFFICERS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

CHURCH  HISTORIAN  AND  RECORDER 

Joseph  Fielding  Smith,  with  A.  William  Lund  as  Assistant 


INC 


84  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 

Monday,  April  6  Third  Day 

CHURCH  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 

Heber  J.  Grant  John  A.  Widtsoe 

J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.  Adam  S.  Bennion 

David  O.  McKay  Joseph  F.  Merrill 

Rudger  Clawson  Charles  A.  Callis 

Joseph  Fielding  Smith  Franklin  L.  West 

Stephen  L  Richards  Albert  E.  Bowen 
Richard  R.  Lyman 

Frank  Evans,  Secretary  and  Treasurer 

COMMISSIONER  OF  EDUCATION 

Franklin  L.  West 

SEMINARY  SUPERVISORS 

M.  Lynn  Bennion 
J.  Karl  Wood 

AUDITING  AND  FINANCE  COMMITTEE 

Orval  W.  Adams 
Albert  E.  Bowen 
George  S.  Spencer 
Harold  H.  Bennett 

TABERNACLE  CHOIR 

Lester  F.  Hewlett,  President 
J.  Spencer  Cornwall,  Conductor 
Richard  P.  Condie,  Assistant  Conductor 

TABERNACLE  ORGANISTS 

Alexander  Schreiner 

Frank  W.  Asper 

Wade  N.  Stephens,  Assistant 

CHURCH  WELFARE  COMMITTEE 

ADVISERS 

John  A.  Widtsoe  Nicholas  G.  Smith 

Albert  E.  Bowen  Antoine  R.  Ivins 

Marion  G.  Romney  John  H.  Taylor 

Thomas  E.  McKay  LeGrand  Richards 

Clifford  E.  Young  Marvin  O.  Ashton 

Alma  Sonne  Joseph  L.  Wirthlin 
General  Presidency  of  Relief  Society 

GENERAL  COMMITTEE 

Henry  D.  Moyle,  Chairman 

Robert  L.  Judd,  Vice  Chairman 

Harold  B.  Lee,  Managing  Director 

Marion  G.  Romney,  Assistant  Managing  Director 
Mark  Austin  William  E.  Ryberg 

Clyde  C.  Edmunds  Stringham  A.  Stevens 

Sterling  H.  Nelson  J.  Frank  Ward 


ELDER  HAROLD  B.  LEE 


85 


GENERAL  AUXILIARY  OFFICERS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

NATIONAL  WOMAN'S  RELIEF  SOCIETY 

Amy  Brown  Lyman,  President 
Marcia  K.  Howells,  First  Counselor 
Donna  D.  Sorensen,  Second  Counselor 
With  all  the  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

DESERET  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  UNION 

George  D.  Pyper,  General  Superintendent 
Milton  Bennion,  First  Assistant  Superintendent 
George  R.  Hill,  Second  Assistant  Superintendent 
With  all  the  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

YOUNG  MEN'S  MUTUAL  IMPROVEMENT  ASSOCIATION 

George  Q.  Morris,  General  Superintendent 
Joseph  J.  Cannon,  First  Assistant  Superintendent 
Burton  K.  Farnsworth,  Second  Assistant  Superintendent 
With  all  the  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

YOUNG  WOMEN'S  MUTUAL  IMPROVEMENT  ASSOCIATION 

Lucy  Grant  Cannon,  President 
Helen  Spencer  Williams,  First  Counselor 
Verna  W.  Goddard,  Second  Counselor 
With  all  the  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

PRIMARY  ASSOCIATION 

May  Green  Hinckley,  Superintendent 
Adele  Cannon  Howells,  First  Assistant  Superintendent 
LaVern  W.  Parmley,  Second  Assistant  Superintendent 
With  all  the  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

ELDER  HAROLD  B.  LEE 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


This  has  been  a  gathering  that  might 
accurately  have  been  described 
as  a  Church  leadership  confer- 
ence. President  Grant,  at  the  opening 
session  of  this  conference,  bore  testi- 
mony to  the  divine  calling  of  those  who 
have  presided  over  the  Church  in  this 
dispensation.  In  his  testimony  he  has 
given  us  the  key  by  which  we  may  be 
safely  guided  in  our  own  presidency 
and  leadership  responsibility,  and  he 
sounded  the  key-note  that  has  carried 
through  this  entire  conference.  I  am 
persuaded  that  any  presiding  officer  who 
does  not  have  such  a  testimony  is  not 
qualified  to  preside  as  an  officer  in  the 
Church. 

From  the  beginning  of  time,  as  re- 


corded in  sacred  scripture,  the  prophets 
of  the  Lord  have  sounded  the  warning 
note  to  the  world  and  to  the  membership 
of  the  Church.  There  have  always 
been  those  with  apostate  leanings  who 
have  ridiculed,  and  have  stood  on  the 
side-lines  and  made  light  of  the  efforts 
of  those  who  sought  to  follow  that 
counsel.  It  was  so  in  the  days  of  Noah, 
and  that  history  is  repeating  itself  at 
the  present  time. 

In  1831,  the  Lord  gave  a  revelation 
to  this  Church,  in  which  He  declared 
that  "the  time  was  not  yet,  but  soon, 
when  peace  should  be  taken  from  the 
earth."  That  time,  we  all  recognize,  is 
here.  In  that  same  revelation  the  Lord 
declared: 


86 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Monday,  April  6 

Wherefore,  I,  the  Lord,  knowing  the 
calamity  which  should  come  upon  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth,  called  upon  my  ser- 
vant Joseph  Smith,  Jun.,  and  spake  unto 
him  from  heaven,  and  gave  him  command- 
ments. (D.  &  C.  1:17) 

Again  He  has  declared,  "whether  by 
mine  own  voice,  or  by  the  voice  of  my 
servants,  it  is  the  same."  (D.  &  C. 
1:38)  Not  all  of  His  commandments 
have  been  given  to  the  Church  in  the 
writings  of  the  scriptures. 

This  conference  has  convened  on  the 
sixth  anniversary  of  the  launching  of 
what  we  have  styled  the  Church  Wel- 
fare plan  which  was  given  to  the 
Church  by  our  leaders  as  they  were 
inspired  by  the  Lord.  The  activities  of 
the  Welfare  plan  have  provided  the 
greatest  opportunities  for  spiritualizing 
this  Church  that  perhaps  have  ever  been 
given  this  people  in  our  generation  and 
as  we  have  watched  it  unfold  and  its 
purposes  be  more  fully  revealed,  we 
have  come  to  see  therein  a  building  for 
not  only  the  temporal  salvation  but 
also  the  spiritual  salvation  of  the 
Church  as  well.  Priesthood  quorums 
everywhere  who  have  rallied  to  that 
call,  and  have  joined  together  as  a 
group,  have  bound  themselves  in  love 
and  unity  that  has  blessed  this  Church 
beyond  our  fondest  expectations. 

We  have  come  to  understand,  and  it 
is  my  firm  conviction  that  the  thing 
most  needed  in  the  Church  today  is  a 
membership  stimulated  to  action  by  a 
fervent  conversion  to  the  divinity  of 
the  calling  of  the  brethren  who  preside 
as  leaders  of  this  Church.  We  have 
been  a  most  blessed  people  above  all 
other  peoples.  We  have  been  given 
the  power  of  the  Priesthood.  We  have 
been  blessed  with  a  divine  leadership 
and  an  inspired  organization,  and  a 
great  pioneering  heritage  and  experi- 
ence. The  Lord  will  hold  us  responsible 
for  the  blessings  that  He  has  given  us, 
and  if  the  calamities  that  have  been 
foretold  come  upon  this  people,  they 
will  come  because  we  have  not  done 
our  full  duty,  and  we  have  not  made 
the  most  of  our  opportunities,  nor  have 


Third  Day 

we  discharged  the  responsibilities  we 
bear  before  our  Heavenly  Father. 

\17e  have  had  many  evidences  of  the 
*  *  power  manifesting  itself  from  the 
united  team  work  of  Priesthood  quo- 
rums. We  have  witnessed  that  wher- 
ever stake  welfare  groups  have  fol- 
lowed the  counsel  of  the  leaders,  and 
have  banded  together  as  regional  or- 
ganizations, when  there  was  a  disaster 
or  an  emergency  as  was  the  case  in 
southern  Arizona  during  a  serious  flood 
situation,  we  have  discovered  to  our 
delight  that  the  way  was  provided  by 
which  true  brotherhood  was  fostered. 
We  have  noted  how  Priesthood  quo- 
rums have  made  large  contributions, 
with  but  very  little  effort  when  they 
worked  unitedly  together.  We  have 
seen  how  great  amounts  of  produce 
have  come  from  those  who  saw  in  their 
assignment  not  merely  an  out  and  out 
contribution,  but  a  chance  to  work  to- 
gether and  to  develop  together,  on  a 
permanent  foundation,  some  project  of 
which  their  community  was  capable. 

We  have  been  delighted  to  observe 
throughout  the  Church  an  attempt  to 
study  the  basic  reasons  for  our  eco- 
nomic difficulties,  and  in  farming  com- 
munities we  have  noticed  that  farmers 
have  set  their  goals  to  two  prime  ob- 
jectives, namely,  first  to  produce  all  they 
can  on  their  own  farms,  for  their  own 
living;  and  second,  to  make  an  all-out 
war  on  debt.  The  analysis  of  how  that 
work  should  be  done  has  been  some- 
thing that  I  am  sure  would  provide  in- 
telligent and  profitable  reading  for  those 
who  are  struggling  with  these  prob- 
lems. 

The  general  Church  Welfare  com- 
mittee would  have  me  say  to  you,  that 
from  the  standpoint  of  organization 
there  is  no  other  way  to  carry  forward 
this  work  except  by  the  Ward  Welfare 
committees,  properly  supervised  by  the 
stake  Welfare  committees.  It  can't 
be  done  without  an  intelligent  analysis 
of  problems  as  revealed  in  the  survey 
that  you  have  been  asked  to  make. 
The  only  ones  who  are  objecting  to  the 
carrying  forward  of  that  survey,  or  to 


ELDER  HAROLD  B.  LEE 


the  organization  as  now  set  up,  are 
those  who  have  never  organized  or  who 
have  never  made  the  survey. 

We  are  pleased  that  in  the  Salt  Lake 
region  we  have  received  the  report 
that  at  least  seventy-five  percent  of 
the  wards  are  functioning  according  to 
program. 

We  have  been  asked  today  to  be 
patriotic.  This  Church,  as  has  been 
read  by  President  McKay,  has  a  record 
of  accomplishment  that  is  a  delight  to 
all  of  us,  and  a  testimony  to  the  world 
of  the  patriotism  of  this  people.  We 
have  been  sending  our  boys  into  the 
army,  and  will  continue  to  do  so.  We 
will  buy  war  bonds  and  stamps.  We 
will  pay  inordinate  taxes,  for  the  carry- 
ing on  of  the  work  for  the  buying  of 
planes  and  munitions  of  war.  We  will 
produce  and  conserve  foodstuffs,  that 
there  may  be  sufficient  of  the  necessities 
to  carry  on,  as  we  have  been  requested 
by  our  government. 

But  beyond  all  that,  the  Latter-day 
Saints  have  a  responsibility,  that  may 
be  better  understood  when  we  recall 
the  prophecy  of  Joseph  Smith  who 
declared  that  "the  time  would  come 
when  (the  destiny  and)  the  Constitu- 
tion of  these  United  States  would  hang 
as  it  were  by  a  thread,  and  that  this  peo- 
ple, the  sons  of  Zion,  would  rise  up 
and  save  it  from  threatened  destruc- 
tion."   (J.  of  D.,  Vol.  7:15) 

T  want  to  ask  you  to  consider  the 
*•  meaning  of  that  prophecy,  in  the  light 
of  the  declaration  of  the  prophets  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  times,  who  de- 
clared that  this  land  was  a  choice  land 
above  all  other  lands,  and  would  be 
free  from  bondage  and  from  captivity, 
and  from  all  other  nations  under  heaven, 
if  they  will  but  serve  the  God  of  this 
land,  even  our  Savior,  Jesus  Christ. 
(Ether  2:12) 

This  is  a  people  whom  the  Lord  has 
chosen  to  preach  the  gospel  of  right- 


eousness. We  talk  of  security  in  this 
day,  and  yet  we  fail  to  understand  that 
here  on  this  Temple  Block  we  have 
standing  the  holy  temple  wherein  we 
may  find  the  symbols  by  which  power 
might  be  generated  that  will  save  this 
nation  from  destruction.  Therein  may 
be  found  the  fulness  of  the  blessings 
of  the  Priesthood.  Yesterday  morning, 
as  we  assembled  and  heard  the  broad- 
cast from  that  place,  broadcasting  to 
the  world  a  message,  it  to  me  was  sig- 
nificant of  the  prophecy  that  from  this 
place  "the  law  shall  go  forth  to  the 
world,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from 
Jerusalem."  The  spires  on  the  eastern 
towers  of  the  temple  are  to  represent 
the  presidency  of  the  Melchizedek 
Priesthood;  the  spires  to  the  west,  the 
presidency  of  the  Aaronic  Priesthood; 
the  gilded  figure  of  the  angel  Moroni 
symbolizes  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
to  the  world.  The  gospel  must  be 
preached  as  a  witness  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  holy  Priesthood:  "Fear 
God  and  give  glory  to  him;  for  the 
hour  of  his  judgment  is  come."  (Rev. 
14:7)  Therein  lies  the  responsi- 
bility of  this  Church  in  sanctifying  this 
people  and  this  nation,  that  they  might 
be  spared  the  judgments  that  otherwise 
might  come  upon  them,  were  it  not 
for  the  preaching  of  the  humble  elders 
of  this  Church. 

The  Prophet  Isaiah  comforted  his 
struggling  people  with  these  words: 

Peace,  peace  to  him  that  is  far  off,  and 
to  him  that  is  near,  saith  the  Lord;  and  I 
will  heal  him. 

But  the  wicked  are  like  the  troubled  sea, 
when  it  cannot  rest,  whose  waters  cast  up 
mire  and  dirt. 

There  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the 
wicked.    (Isaiah  57:19-21) 

May  we  return  home  and  teach  our 
people  the  way  of  peace — peace  be- 
cause they  are  willing  to  live  the  com- 
mandments of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
I  humbly  pray,  in  His  name.  Amen. 


\ 


88 

Monday,  April  6 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 


MESSAGE  OF  THE  FIRST  PRESIDENCY 

President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.:  It  is  now  my  privilege  and  honor  to 
read  to  you  a  rather  long  message  from  the  First  Presidency  of  the  Church. 


IN  these  days  of  trial  and  sorrow, 
when  Satan  is  "seeking  to  destroy 
the  souls  of  men"  (D.  &  C.  10: 
27)  we  send  to  the  righteous  every- 
where our  greetings  with  prayers  for 
their  blessing;  to  the  Saints  in  all 
lands  and  on  the  islands  of  the  seas, 
we  renew  our  testimonies  and  pledge 
our  unselfish  service,  exhorting  them 
to  lives  obedient  to  the  gospel  and 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord;  we 
extend  to  them  the  hand  of  true  and 
faithful  fellowship,  with  deep  and 
abiding  love  and  blessing. 

Our  Testimonies 

■^7e  bear  witness  to  all  the  world 
that  God  lives,  and  still  rules, 
that  His  righteous  ways  and  His 
truth  will  finally  prevail. 

We  bear  testimony  that  Jesus  is 
the  Christ,  the  Only  Begotten  of  the 
Father,  the  First  Fruits  of  the  Resur- 
rection, the  Redeemer  of  the  World, 
and  that  "there  is  none  other  name 
under  heaven  given  among  men, 
whereby  we  must  be  saved."  (Acts 
4:12) 

We  solemnly  declare  that  in  these 
the  latter-days,  God  has  again 
spoken  from  the  heavens  through 
His  chosen  Prophet,  Joseph  Smith; 
that  the  Lord  has,  through  that  same 
Prophet,  again  revealed  in  its  ful- 
ness His  gospel, — the  plan  of  life 
and  salvation;  that  through  that 
Prophet  and  his  associates  He  has 
restored  His  holy  Priesthood  to  the 
earth,  from  which  it  had  been  taken 
because  of  the  wickedness  of  men; 
and  that  all  the  rights,  powers,  keys, 
and  functions  appertaining  to  that 
Priesthood  as  so  restored  are  now 
vested  in  and  exercised  by  the 
chosen  and  inspired  leadership  of 
His  Church, — The  Church  of  Jesus 


Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  even  as 
that  Priesthood  has  been  exercised 
on  the  earth  from  the  Beginning  until 
this  day,  whenever  His  Church  was 
here  or  His  work  had  place  among 
the  children  of  men. 

These  testimonies  we  bear  in  all 
soberness,  before  God  and  men, 
aware  that  we  are  answerable  to 
God  for  the  truthfulness  thereof. 
We  admonish  all  men  to  give  ear  to 
these  testimonies  and  to  bring  their 
lives  into  harmony  with  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  that  on  the  day  "When 
the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  his 
glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with 
him,"  they  may  Stand  with  those  on 
His  right  hand,  to  whom  He  will  say, 
"Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  in- 
herit the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world." 
(Matt.  25:31,  34) 

We  shall  now  speak  first  of  some 
vital  practical  matters  which  should 
be  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  all 
Latter-day  Saints. 

Message  to  Parents 

Jt  is  becoming  increasingly  clear 
that  very  many  of  our  physicians 
and  surgeons  will  be  taken  by  the 
government  for  service  with  the 
armed  forces.  This  is  well,  for  we 
want  our  soldiers  and  sailors  to  have 
every  care  which  it  is  possible  to 
give  them.  But  this  will  leave  the 
civilians  with  curtailed  and  probably 
inadequate  medical  help.  In  some 
areas  we  shall  be  left  with  little  more 
trained  assistance  than  was  avail- 
able to  our  pioneer  fathers.  Yet  it 
is  our  patriotic  duty  to  be  as  fully 
effective  in  production  at  home  as 
our  boys  are  effective  in  combat  in 
the  field.  Those  in  the  front  lines 
cannot  be  strong  unless  those  behind 


MESSAGE  OF  THE  FIRST  PRESIDENCY 


89 


the  lines  are  strong  also.  To  meet 
this  patriotic  duty  and  to  prepare  for 
this  threatening  condition,  we  urge 
all  parents  to  guard  with  zealous 
care  the  health  of  their  children. 
Feed  them  simple,  good,  wholesome 
food  that  will  nourish  and  make  them 
strong.  See  that  they  are  warmly 
clad.  Keep  them  from  exposure. 
Have  them  avoid  unnecessary 
crowds  in  close,  poorly  ventilated, 
overheated  rooms  and  halls.  See 
that  they  have  plenty  of  rest  and 
sleep.  Avoid  late  hours.  Keep  them 
home  in  the  evenings  and  remain 
home  to  enjoy  them.  Teach  them 
strictly  to  observe  the  Word  of  Wis- 
dom which  is  God's  law  of  health. 
You  parents  observe  these  rules 
yourselves,  and  keep  the  other  com- 
mandments of  the  Lord.  You  bish- 
ops and  presidents  of  stakes,  first 
lead  your  people  by  example  and 
then  they  will  follow  your  precepts. 
Parents,  prepare  yourselves  and  your 
children  for  the  times  to  come.  So 
live,  day  by  day,  that  you  may  with 
confidence,  ask  the  blessings  of 
health  with  which  the  Lord  clothes 
those  whom,  living  righteously,  He 
delights  to  succor. 

Message  to  the  Youth 

TTo  the  youth  of  the  Church  we  re- 
peat all  the  foregoing  advice,  but 
above  all  we  plead  with  you  to  live 
clean,  for  the  unclean  life  leads  only 
to  suffering,  misery,  and  woe  phys- 
ically,— and  spiritually  it  is  the  path 
to  destruction.  How  glorious  and 
near  to  the  angels  is  youth  that  is 
clean;  this  youth  has  joy  unspeak- 
able here  and  eternal  happiness 
hereafter.  Sexual  purity  is  youth's 
most  precious  possession;  it  is  the 
foundation  of  all  righteousness.  Bet- 
ter dead,  clean,  than  alive,  unclean. 

Times  approach  when  we  shall 
need  all  the  health,  strength,  and 
spiritual  power  we  can  get  to  bear 
the  afflictions  that  will  come  upon  us. 


Welfare  Work 
"\X7'e  renew  the  counsel  given  to  the 
Saints  from  the  days  of  Brig- 
ham  Young  until  now, — be  honest, 
truthful,  industrious,  frugal,  thrifty. 
In  the  day  of  plenty,  prepare  for 
the  day  of  scarcity.  The  principle 
of  the  fat  and  lean  kine,  is  as  applic- 
able today  as  it  was  in  the  days  when, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  Joseph  in- 
terpreted Pharaoh's  dream.  Offi- 
cials now  warn  us,  and  warn  again, 
that  scant  days  are  coming. 

We  renew  our  counsel,  and  re- 
peat our  instructions.  Let  every 
Latter-day  Saint  that  has  land,  pro- 
duce some  valuable,  essential  food- 
stuff thereon  and  then  preserve  it; 
or  if  he  cannot  produce  an  essential 
foodstuff,  let  him  produce  some  other 
kind  and  exchange  it  for  an  essential 
foodstuff;  let  them  who  have  no  land 
of  their  own,  and  who  have  knowl- 
edge of  farming  and  gardening,  try 
to  rent  some,  either  by  themselves 
or  with  others,  and  produce  food- 
stuff thereon,  and  preserve  it.  Let 
those  who  have  land  produce  enough 
extra  to  help  their  less  fortunate 
brethren. 

The  Welfare  plan  should  be  car- 
ried forward  with  redoubled  energy 
that  we  may  care  for  the  worthy, 
needy  poor  and  unfortunate,  and 
many  of  us  may  hereafter  enter  that 
class  who  now  feel  we  are  secure 
from  want. 

As  the  Church  has  always  urged 
since  we  came  to  the  Valleys,  so  now 
we  urge  every  Church  householder 
to  have  a  year's  supply  of  essential 
foodstuffs  ahead.  This  should,  so 
far  as  possible,  be  produced  by  each 
householder  and  preserved  by  him. 
This  course  will  not  only  relieve  from 
any  impending  distress  those  house- 
holds who  so  provide  themselves, 
but  will  release  just  that  much  food 
to  the  general  national  stores  of 
foodstuffs  from  which  the  public  at 
large  must  be  fed. 


90 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Monday,  April  6 

The  utmost  care  should  be  taken 
to  see  that  foodstuffs  so  produced 
and  preserved  by  the  householder, 
do  not  spoil,  for  that  would  be  waste, 
and  the  Lord  looks  with  disfavor  up- 
on waste.  He  has  blessed  His  people 
with  abundant  crops;  the  promise  for 
this  year  is  most  hopeful.  The  Lord  is 
doing  His  part;  He  expects  us  to  do 
ours. 

False  Political  Isms 

"\\7e  again  warn  our  people  in 
America  of  the  constantly  in- 
creasing threat  against  our  inspired 
Constitution  and  our  free  institu- 
tions set  up  under  it.  The  same 
political  tenets  and  philosophies 
that  have  brought  war  and  terror 
in  other  parts  of  the  world  are  at 
work  amongst  us  in  America.  The 
proponents  thereof  are  seeking  to 
undermine  our  own  form  of  govern- 
ment and  to  set  up  instead  one  of  the 
forms  of  dictatorships  now  flourish- 
ing in  other  lands.  These  revolution- 
ists are  using  a  technique  that  is  as 
old  as  the  human  race, — a  fervid  but 
false  solicitude  for  the  unfortunate 
over  whom  they  thus  gain  mastery, 
and  then  enslave  them. 

They  suit  their  approaches  to  the 
particular  group  they  seek  to  deceive. 
Among  the  Latter-day  Saints  they 
speak  of  their  philosophy  and  their 
plans  under  it,  as  an  ushering  in  of 
the  United  Order.  Communism  and 
all  other  similar  isms  bear  no  rela- 
tionship whatever  to  the  United 
Order.  They  are  merely  the  clumsy 
counterfeits  which  Satan  always 
devises  of  the  gospel  plan.  Com- 
munism debases  the  individual  and 
makes  him  the  enslaved  tool  of  the 
state  to  whom  he  must  look  for 
sustenance  and  religion;  the  United 
Order  exalts  the  individual,  leaves 
him  his  property,  "according  to  his 
family,  according  to  his  circum- 
stances and  his  wants  and  needs," 


Third  Day 

( D.  &  C.  51 :3)  and  provides  a  sys- 
tem by  which  he  helps  care  for  his 
less  fortunate  brethren;  the  United 
Order  leaves  every  man  free  to 
choose  his  own  religion  as  his  con- 
science directs.  Communism  de- 
stroys man's  God-given  free  agency; 
the  United  Order  glorifies  it.  Latter- 
day  Saints  cannot  be  true  to  their 
faith  and  lend  aid,  encouragement, 
or  sympathy  to  any  of  these  false 
philosophies.  They  will  prove  snares 
to  their  feet. 

Gospel  of  Love 

rJTHE  gospel  of  Christ  is  a  gospel  of 
love  and  peace,  of  patience  and 
long  suffering,  of  forbearance  and 
forgiveness,  of  kindness  and  good 
deeds,  of  charity  and  brotherly  love. 
Greed,  avarice,  base  ambition,  thirst 
for  power,  and  unrighteous  domin- 
ion over  our  fellow  men,  can  have 
no  place  in  the  hearts  of  Latter-day 
Saints  nor  of  God-fearing  men 
everywhere.  We  of  the  Church 
must  lead  the  life  prescribed  in  the 
saying  of  the  ancient  prophet-war- 
rior: 

I  seek  not  for  power,  but  to  pull  it  down. 
I  seek  not  for  honor  of  the  world,  but  for 
the  glory  of  my  God,  and  the  freedom  and 
welfare  of  my  country.  (Alma  60:36) 

Hate  Must  Be  Abolished 

TJate  can  have  no  place  in  the  souls 
of  the  righteous.   We  must  follow 
the  commands  of  Christ  Himself  which 
declare  the  true  life: 

Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse 
you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and 
pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use  you, 
and  persecute  you; 

That  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven.  (Matt.  5:44-45) 

These  principles  must  be  instilled 
into  the  hearts  of  our  children,  taught 
to  our  youth,  given  by  way  of  instruc- 
tion to  our  vigorous  manhood  and  wom- 
anhood, lived  in  very  fact  and  deed 
by  the  aged,  ripened  in  experience  and 


MESSAGE  OF  THE  FIRST  PRESIDENCY 


91 


wisdom.  These  are  the  principles 
which  God  enjoins  upon  all  who  teach, 
in  whatever  capacity  or  in  whatever 
place.  The  Lord  has  declared  that 
those  who  teach  not  their  'children  light 
and  truth,  according  to  the  command- 
ments' shall  be  afflicted,  the  wicked 
one  shall  have  power  over  them  (D.  & 
C.  93:42) ,  and  the  sin  shall  be  upon  their 
heads  (D.  &  C.  68:25).  Woe  will  be 
the  part  of  those  who  plant  hate  in  the 
hearts  of  the  youth,  and  of  the  people, 
for  God  will  not  hold  them  guiltless; 
they  are  sowing  the  wind,  their  victims 
will  reap  the  whirlwinds.  Hate  is  born 
of  Satan;  love  is  the  offspring  of  God. 
We  must  drive  out  hate  from  our 
hearts,  every  one  of  us,  and  permit  it 
not  again  to  enter. 

Mission  of  the  Church 

HPhe  Lord  has  established  His  Church 
A  in  these  latter-days  that  men  might 
be  called  to  repentance,  to  the  salva- 
tion and  exaltation  of  their  souls.  Time 
and  time  again  He  told  the  Prophet 
Joseph  and  those  with  him  that  "the 
field  is  white  already  to  harvest."  (D.  & 
C.  4:4;  6:3;  11:3;  12:3;  14:3;  33:3,  7) 
Over  and  over  again  He  commanded 
them  to  preach  nothing  but  repentance 
to  this  generation  (D.  &  C.  6:9;  11:9, 
14:8)  finally  declaring: 

And  thou  shalt  declare  glad  tidings,  yea, 
publish  it  upon  the  mountains,  and  upon 
every  high  place,  and  among  every  people 
that  thou  shalt  be  permitted  to  see. 

And  thou  shalt  do  it  with  all  humility, 
trusting  in  me,  reviling  not  against  revilers. 

And  of  tenets  thou  shalt  not  talk,  but  thou 
shalt  declare  repentance  and  faith  on  the 
Savior,  and  remission  of  sins  by  baptism 
and  by  fire,  yea,  even  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Behold,  this  is  a  great  and  the  last  com- 
mandment which  I  shall  give  unto  you  con- 
cerning this  matter;  for  this  shall  suffice 
for  thy  daily  walk,  even  unto  the  end  of 
thy  life. 

And  misery  thou  shalt  receive  if  thou 
wilt  slight  these  counsels,  yea,  even  the 
destruction  of  thyself  and  property.  (D. 
&  C.  19:29-33) 

These  commands  we  must  obey 
that  men  shall  come  to  know  God  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  He  sent,  for  "this 
is  life  eternal."    (John  17:3) 
For  this  cause  was  the  Church  or-' 


ganized,  the  gospel  again  revealed  in 
its  fulness,  the  Priesthood  of  God  again 
restored,  with  all  its  rights,  powers, 
keys  and  functions.  This  is  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Church.  The  divine  com- 
mission given  to  the  apostles  of  old 
(Matt.  28:18  ff.;  Mark  16:15  ff.)  has 
been  repeated  in  this  day,  that  the  gos- 
pel shall  be  carried  to  all  nations 
(D.  &  C.  38:33),  unto  the  Jew  and  the 
Gentile  (D.  &  C.  18:26);  it  shall  be  de- 
clared with  rejoicing  (D.  6  C.  28:16); 
it  shall  roll  to  the  ends  of  the  earth 
( D.  &  C.  65 : 2 ) ;  and  it  must  be  preached 
by  us  to  whom  the  kingdom  has  been 
given.  (D.  &  C.  84:76)  No  act  of  ours 
or  of  the  Church  must  interfere  with  this 
God-given  mandate.  The  Lord  will 
hold  us  to  this  high  commission  and 
exalted  duty,  imposed  by  His  command- 
ment to  us,  when  He  said: 

And  in  nothing  doth  man  offend  God, 
or  against  none  is  his  wrath  kindled,  save 
those  who  confess  not  his  hand  in  all  things, 
and  obey  not  his  commandments.  ( D.  &  C. 
59:21) 

We  shall  be  excused  from  this  divine 
commission,  individually  and  as  a 
Church,  only  if  some  power  beyond  our 
control  shall  prevent  our  obedience  to 
God's  commands,  then  they  who  hinder 
must  bear  the  penalty.  (D.6C.  124:49) 
But  to  that  point  of  hindrance,  it  is 
our  bounden  duty  to  carry  on. 

Sending  of  Missionaries 

Tt  is  our  duty,  divinely  imposed,  to 
continue  urgently  and  militantly  to 
carry  forward  our  missionary  work. 
We  must  continue  to  call  missionaries 
and  send  them  out  to  preach  the  gospel, 
which  was  never  more  needed  than 
now,  which  is  the  only  remedy  for  the 
tragic  ills  that  now  afflict  the  world, 
and  which  alone  can  bring  peace  and 
brotherly  love  back  amongst  the  peo- 
ples of  the  earth.  We  must  continue 
to  call  to  missionary  work  those  who 
seem  best  able  to  perform  it  in  these 
troublous  and  difficult  days.  Our  duty 
under  divine  command  imperatively  de- 
mands this.  We  shall  not  knowingly 
call  anyone  for  the  purpose  of  having 
him  evade  military  service,  nor  for  the 


\ 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


92 

Monday,  April  6 

purpose  of  interfering  with  or  hamper- 
ing that  service  in  any  way,  nor  of 
putting  any  impediment  in  the  way  of 
government.  These  would  be  un- 
worthy motives  for  a  missionary  life. 
Our  people  have  furnished  and  we 
expect  them  to  continue  to  furnish  their 
full  quota  for  those  purposes,  but  we 
see  no  alternative, '  until  new  rules  are 
made  by  the  government,  but  to  con- 
tinue to  call  the  best  and  most  effective 
men  into  missionary  work,  if  they  are 
available  therefor. 

Having  in  mind  that  the  worldwide 
disaster  in  material  and  spiritual  matters 
has  brought  vital  and  difficult  problems 
to  the  nation  and  to  the  Church, — -the 
nation  because  of  need  of  manpower 
for  the  armed  forces  and  defense  works, 
and  to  the  Church  because  of  the  im- 
perative need  it  brings  to  us  to  employ 
in  our  missionary  work  the  experience, 
testimony  and  faith  possessed  by  our 
more  mature  brethren,  we  have  in- 
structed our  bishops,  presidents  of 
branches,  and  presidents  of  missions, 
to  confine  until  further  notice,  their 
recommendations  of  brethren  for  mis- 
sionary service  in  the  field,  to  those 
who  on  March  23,  1942,  were  seventies 
or  high  priests.  Furthermore,  in 
recommending  these  brethren,  none  but 
those  who  are  and  have  been  living 
worthily,  should  be  chosen;  and  as  to 
these,  they  should  choose  those  only 
who  have  not  received  their  notice  of 
induction,  who  are  not  likely  to  receive 
it  within  a  short  time,  and  who  have  a 
real  desire  to  do  missionary  work. 

To  preach  the  gospel,  under  ordina- 
tion from  the  Priesthood  of  God,  is  a 
great  privilege,  to  be  enjoyed  by  those 
only  who  are  thoroughly  qualified  and 
who  are  and  have  been  strictly  living 
the  commandments  and  attending  to 
their  Church  duties.  Every  bishop  will 
carefully  examine  everyone  whom  he 
considers  for  a  mission,  to  be  sure  he 
meets  these  requirements.  No  luke- 
warm or  unworthy  person  should  be 
recommended.  The  bishop  must  not 
in  any  way  play  favorites,  thus  avoid- 
ing giving  just  ground  among  the  peo- 
ple of  his  ward  for  that  unworthy,  un- 
righteous thought,  sometimes  voiced 
by  those  whose  sons  have  gone  into 


Third  Day 

the  service,  that  because  their  sons  have 
gone  into  the  army,  every  other  parent's 
son  should  go  into  the  army,  and  that 
none  should  be  sent  on  missions.  This 
feeling  has  behind  it  thoughts  that  do 
not  comport  with  the  teachings  of  our 
Heavenly  Father.  Moreover,  those 
going  on  missions  are  amenable  to 
selection  for  army  service  so  soon  as 
they  return.  A  mission  exempts  from 
army  service  only  for  the  term  of  the 
mission. 

Church  and  State 

HThe  Church  stands  for  the  separation 
of  church  and  state.  The  church 
has  no  civil  political  functions.  As 
the  church  may  not  assume  the  func- 
tions of  the  state,  so  the  state  may  not 
assume  the  functions  of  the  church. 
The  church  is  responsible  for  and  must 
carry  on  the  work  of  the  Lord,  directing 
the  conduct  of  its  members,  one  towards 
the  other,  as  followers  of  the  lowly 
Christ,  not  forgetting  the  humble,  the 
poor  and  needy,  and  those  in  distress, 
leading  them  all  to  righteous  living  and 
a  spiritual  life  that  shall  bring  them  to 
salvation,  exaltation,  and  eternal  pro- 
gression in  wisdom,  knowledge,  un- 
derstanding, and  power. 

Today,  more  than  ever  before  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  we  must  bring 
the  full  force  of  the  righteous  living  of 
our  people  and  the  full  influence  of  the 
spiritual  power  and  responsibility  of  the 
holy  Priesthood,  to  combat  the  evil 
forces  which  Satan  has  let  loose  among 
the  peonies  of  the  earth.  We  are  in  the 
midst  of  a  desperate  struggle  between 
Truth  and  Error,  and  Truth  will  finally 
prevail. 

The  state  is  responsible  for  the  civil 
control  of  its  citizens  or  subjects,  for 
their  political  welfare,  and  for  the  carry- 
ing forward  of  political  policies,  do- 
mestic and  foreign,  of  the  body  politic. 
For  these  policies,  their  success  or 
failure,  the  state  is  alone  responsible, 
and  it  must  carry  its  burdens.  All  these 
matters  involve  and  directly  affect 
Church  members  because  they  are  part 
of  the  body  politic,  and  members  must 
give  allegiance  to  their  sovereign  and 
render  it  loyal  service  when  called 
thereto.  But  the  Church,  itself,  as  such, 


MESSAGE  OF  THE 

has  no  responsibility  for  these  policies, 
as  to  which  it  has  no  means  of  doing 
more  than  urging  its  members  fully  to 
render  that  loyalty  to  their  country  and 
to  free  institutions  which  the  loftiest 
patriotism  calls  for. 

Nevertheless,  as  a  correlative  of  the 
principle  of  separation  of  the  church 
and  the  State,  themselves,  there  is  an  ob- 
ligation running  from  every  citizen  or 
subject  to  the  state.  This  obligation 
is  voiced  in  that  Article  of  Faith  which 
declares : 

We  believe  in  being  subject  to  kings, 
presidents,  rulers,  and  magistrates,  in  obey- 
ing, honoring,  and  sustaining  the  law. 

For  one  hundred  years,  the  Church 
has  been  guided  by  the  following  prin- 
ciples: 

We  believe  that  governments  were  in- 
stituted of  God  for  the  benefit  of  man; 
and  that  he  holds  men  accountable  for  their 
acts  in  relation  to  them,  both  in  making 
laws  and  administering  them,  for  the  good 
and  safety  of  society. 

We  believe  that  no  government  can  exist 
in  peace,  except  such  laws  are  framed  and 
held  inviolate  as  will  secure  to  each  indi- 
vidual the  free  exercise  of  conscience,  the 
right  and  control  of  property,  and  the  pro- 
tection of  life. 

We  believe  that  all  governments  neces- 
sarily require  civil  officers  and  magistrates 
to  enforce  the  laws  of  the  same;  and  that 
such  as  will  administer  the  law  in  equity 
and  justice  should  be  sought  for  and  upheld 
by  the  voice  of  the  people  if  a  republic,  or 
the  will  of  the  sovereign. 

We  believe  that  religion  is  instituted  of 
God;  and  that  men  are  amenable  to  him, 
and  to  him  only,  for  the  exercise  of  it, 
unless  their  religious  opinions  prompt  them 
to  infringe  upon  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
others;  but  we  do  not  believe  that  human 
law  has  a  right  to  interfere  in  prescribing 
rules  of  worship  to  bind  the  consciences  of 
men,  nor  dictate  forms  for  public  or  private 
devotion;  that  the  civil  magistrate  should 
restrain  crime,  but  never  control  conscience; 
should  punish  guilt,  but  never  suppress  the 
freedom  of  the  soul. 

We  believe  that  all  men  are  bound  to 
sustain  and  uphold  the  respective  govern- 
ments in  which  they  reside,  while  protected 
in  their  inherent  and  inalienable  rights  by 
the  laws  of  such  governments;  and  that 
sedition  and  rebellion  are  unbecoming  every 
citizen  thus  protected,  and  should  be  pun- 
ished accordingly;  and  that  all  governments 


-J 

FIRST  PRESIDENCY  93 

have  a  right  to  enact  such  laws  as  in  their 
own  judgments  are  best  calculated  to  secure 
the  public  interest;  at  the  same  time,  how- 
ever, holding  sacred  the  freedom  of  con- 
science. 

We  believe  that  every  man  should  be 
honored  in  his  station,  rulers  and  magis- 
trates as  such,  being  placed  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  innocent  and  the  punishment 
of  the  guilty;  and  that  to  the  laws  all  men 
owe  respect  and  deference,  as  without  them 
peace  and  harmony  would  be  supplanted 
by  anarchy  and  terror;  human  laws  being 
instituted  for  the  express  purpose  of  regu- 
lating our  interests  as  individuals  and  na- 
tions, between  man  and  man;  and  divine 
laws  given  of  heaven,  prescribing  rules  on 
spiritual  concerns,  for  faith  and  worship, 
both  to  be  answered  by  man  to  his  Maker.  .  . 

We  believe  .  .  .  that  murder,  treason, 
robbery,  theft,  and  the  breach  of  the  general 
peace,  in  all  respects,  should  be  punished 
according  to  their  criminality  and  their 
tendency  to  evil  among  men,  by  the  laws 
of  that  government  in  which  the  offense  is 
committed.  ...  (D.  &  C.  134:1-6,  8) 

Church  Membership  and 
Army  Service 

/^Vbedient  to  these  principles,  the  mem- 
bers  of  the  Church  have  always 
felt  under  obligation  to  come  to  the 
defense  of  their  country  when  a  call 
to  arms  was  made;  on  occasion  the 
Church  has  prepared  to  defend  its  own 
members. 

In  the  days  of  Nauvoo,  the  Nauvoo 
Legion  was  formed,  having  in  view  the 
possible  armed  defense  of  the  Saints 
against  mob  violence.  Following  our 
expulsion  from  Nauvoo,  the  Mormon 
Battalion  was  recruited  by  the  national 
government  for  service  in  the  war  with 
Mexico.  When  Johnston's  army  was 
sent  to  Utah  in  1857  as  the  result  of 
malicious  misrepresentations  as  to  the 
actions  and  attitude  of  the  territorial 
officers  and  the  people,  we  prepared 
and  used  measures  of  force  to  prevent 
the  entry  of  the  army  into  the  valleys. 
During  the  early  years  in  Utah,  forces 
were  raised  and  used  to  fight  the  In- 
dians. In  the  war  with  Spain,  members 
of  the  Church  served  with  the  armed 
forces  of  the  United  States,  with  dis- 
tinction and  honor.  In  the  World  War, 
the  Saints  of  America  and  of  European 
countries  served  loyally  their  respec- 
tive governments,  on  both  sides  of  the 


94 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Monday,  April  6 

conflict.  Likewise  in  the  present  war, 
righteous  men  of  the  Church  in  both 
camps  have  died,  some  with  great  hero- 
ism, for  their  own  country's  sake.  In 
all  this  our  people  have  but  served 
loyally  the  country  of  which  they  were 
citizens  or  subjects  under  the  principles 
we  have  already  stated.  We  have  felt 
honored  that  our  brethren  have  died 
nobly  for  their  country;  the  Church  has 
been  benefited  by  their  service  and  sac- 
rifice. 

Nevertheless,  we  have  not  forgotten 
that  on  Sinai,  God  commanded  "Thou 
shalt  not  kill";  nor  that  in  this  dispen- 
sation the  Lord  has  repeatedly  reiter- 
ated that  command.   He  has  said: 

And  now,  behold,  I  speak  unto  the  church. 
Thou  shalt  not  kill;  and  he  that  kills  shall 
not  have  forgiveness  in  this  world,  nor  in 
the  world  to  come. 

And  again,  I  say,  thou  shalt  not  kill;  but 
he  that  killeth  shall  die.  (D.  &  C.  42:18-19; 
and  see  59:6) 

At  another  time  the  Lord  commanded 
that  murderers  should  "be  delivered  up 
and  dealt  with  according  to  the  laws 
of  the  land;  for  remember  that  he  hath 
no  forgiveness."  (ibid  79)  So  also  when 
land  was  to  be  obtained  in  Zion,  the 
Lord  said : 

Wherefore,  the  land  of  Zion  shall  not  be 
obtained  but  by  purchase  or  by  blood, 
otherwise  there  is  none  inheritance  for  you. 

And  if  by  purchase,  behold  you  are 
blessed; 

And  if  by  blood,  as  you  are  forbidden  to 
shed  blood,  lo,  your  enemies  are  upon  you, 
and  ye  shall  be  scourged  from  city  to  city, 
and  from  synagogue  to  synagogue,  and 
but  few  shall  stand  to  receive  an  inheri- 
tance. (D.  &  C.  63:29-31) 

But  all  these  commands,  from  Sinai 
down,  run  in  very  terms  against  indi- 
viduals as  members  of  society,  as  well 
as  members  of  the  Church,  for  one  man 
must  not  kill  another  as  Cain  killed 
Abel;  they  also  run  against  the  Church 
as  in  the  case  of  securing  land  in  Zion, 
because  Christ's  Church  should  not 
make  war,  for  the  Lord  is  a  Lord  of 
peace.  He  has  said  to  us  in  this  dis- 
pensation: 

Therefore,  renounce  war  and  proclaim 
peace.  .  .  .  (D.  6  C.  98:16) 


Third  Day 

Thus  the  Church  is  and  must  be 
against  war.  The  Church  itself  cannot 
wage  war,  unless  and  until  the  Lord 
shall  issue  new  commands.  It  cannot 
regard  war  as  a  righteous  means  of 
settling  international  disputes;  these 
should  and  could  be  settled — the  na- 
tions agreeing — by  peaceful  negotia- 
tion and  adjustment. 

But  the  Church  membership  are  citi- 
zens or  subjects  of  sovereignties  over 
which  the  Church  has  no  control.  The 
Lord  Himself  has  told  us  to  'befriend 
that  law  which  is  the  constitutional  law 
of  the  land': 

And  now,  verily  I  say  unto  you  concern- 
ing the  laws  of  the  land,  it  is  my  will  that 
my  people  should  observe  to  do  all  things 
whatsoever  I  command  them. 

And  that  law  of  the  land  which  is  con- 
stitutional, supporting  that  principle  of  free- 
dom in  maintaining  rights  and  privileges, 
belongs  to  all  mankind,  and  is  justifiable 
before  me. 

Therefore,  I,  the  Lord,  justify  you,  and 
your  brethren  of  my  church,  in  befriending 
that  law  which  is  the  constitutional  law  of 
the  land; 

And  as  pertaining  to  law  of  man,  what- 
soever is  more  or  less  than  this  cometh  of 
evil.    (D.  &  C.  98:4-7) 

While  by  its  terms  this  revealed  word 
related  more  especially  to  this  land  of 
America,  nevertheless  the  principles 
announced  are  worldwide  in  their  ap- 
plication, and  they  are  specifically  ad- 
dressed to  "you"  (Joseph  Smith),  "and 
your  brethren  of  my  church."  When, 
therefore,  constitutional  law,  obedient 
to  these  principles,  calls  the  manhood 
of  the  Church  into  the  armed  service 
of  any  country  to  which  they  owe 
allegiance,  their  highest  civic  duty  re- 
quires that  they  meet  that  call.  If,  bark- 
ening to  that  call  ancf  obeying  tEose  in 
command  over  them,  they  shall  take 
the  lives  of  those  who  fight  against  them, 
that  will  not  make  of  them  murderers, 
nor  subject  them  to  the  penalty  that 
God  has  prescribed  for  those  who  kill, 
beyond  the  principle  to  be  mentioned 
shortly.  For  it  would  be  a  cruel  God 
that  would  punish  His  children  as  moral 
sinners  for  acts  done  by  them  as  the 
innocent  instrumentalities  of  a  sover- 
eign whom  He- had  told  them  to  obey 


MESSAGE  OF  THE  FIRST  PRESIDENCY 


95 


and  whose  will  they  were  powerless  to 
resist. 

God  Is  At  The  Helm 

'"Phe  whole  world  is  in  the  midst  of 
a  war  that  seems  the  worst  of  all 
time.  This  Church  is  a  worldwide 
Church.  Its  devoted  members  are  in 
both  camps.  They  are  the  innocent 
war  instrumentalities  of  their  warring 
sovereignties.  On  each  side  they  be- 
lieve they  are  righting  for  home,  and 
country,  and  freedom.  On  each  side, 
our  brethren  pray  to  the  same  God,  in 
the  same  name,  for  victory.  Both  sides 
cannot  be  wholly  right;  perhaps  neither 
is  without  wrong.  God  will  work  out 
In  His  own  due  time  and  in  His  own 
sovereign  way  the  justice  and  right  of 
the  conflict,  but  He  will  not  hold  the 
innocent  instrumentalities  of  the  war, 
our  brethren  in  arms,  responsible  for 
the  conflict.  This  is  a  major  crisis  in 
the  world-life  of  man.  God  is  at  the 
helm. 

Righteous  Suffer  With  Wicked 

Dut  there  is  an  eternal  law  that  rules 
war  and  those  who  engage  in  it. 
It  was  given  when,  Peter  having  struck 
off  the  ear  of  Malchus,  the  servant  of 
the  High  Priest,  Jesus  reproved  him, 
saying : 

Put  up  again  thy  sword  into  his  place: 
for  all  they  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish 
with  the  sword.  (Matt.  26:52) 

The  Savior  thus  laid  down  a  general 
principle  upon  which  He  placed  no  limi- 
tations as  to  time,  place,  cause,  or  peo- 
ple involved.  He  repeated  it  in  this 
dispensation  when  He  told  the  people  if 
they  tried  to  secure  the  land  of  Zion 
by  blood,  then  "lo,  your  enemies  are 
upon  you."  This  is  a  universal  law,  for 
force  always  begets  force;  it  is  the  law 
of  'an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth'  (Ex.  21:24;  Lev.  24:20);  it  is 
the  law  of  the  unrighteous  and  wicked, 
but  it  operates  against  the  righteous 
who  may  be  involved. 

Mormon,  recording  the  war  of  re- 
venge by  the  Nephites,  against  the 
Lamanites,  pronounced  another  great 
law: 


But,  behold,  the  judgments  of  God  will 
overtake  the  wicked;  and  it  is  by  the  wicked 
that  the  wicked  are  punished;  for  it  is  the 
wicked  that  stir  up  the  hearts  of  the  children 
of  men  unto  bloodshed.  (Mormon  4:5) 

But,  we  repeat,  in  this  war  of  the 
wicked,  the  righteous  suffer  also. 
Moroni,  mistakenly  reproving  Pahoran 
'for  sitting  upon  his  throne  in  a  state  of 
thoughtless  stupor,  while  his  enemies 
were  spreading  the  work  of  death 
around  him,  yea,  while  they  were  mur- 
dering thousands  of  his  brethren,'  said 
to  Pahoran: 

Do  ye  suppose  that,  because  so  many 
of  your  brethren  have  been  killed  it  is 
because  of  their  wickedness?  1  say  unto 
you,  if  ye  have  supposed  this  ye  have 
supposed  in  vain;  for  I  say  unto  you,  there 
are  many  who  have  fallen  by  the  sword; 
and  behold  it  is  to  your  condemnation; 

For  the  Lord  suffereth  the  righteous  to 
be  slain  that  his  justice  and  judgment  may 
come  upon  the  wicked;  therefore  ye  need 
not  suppose  that  the  righteous  are  lost 
because  they  are  slain;  but  behold,  they 
do  enter  into  the  rest  of  the  Lord  their 
God.  (Alma  60:7,  12-13) 

In  this  terrible  war  now  waging,  thou- 
sands of  our  righteous  young  men  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  and  in  many  countries 
are  subject  to  a  call  into  the  military 
service  of  their  own  countries.  Some 
of  these,  so  serving,  have  already  been 
called  back  to  their  heavenly  home; 
others  will  almost  surely  be  called  to 
follow.  But  'behold,'  as  Moroni  said, 
the  righteous  of  them  who  serve  and  are 
slain  'do  enter  into  the  rest  of  the  Lord 
their  God,'  and  of  them  the  Lord  has 
said  "those  that  die  in  me  shall  not  taste 
of  death,  for  it  shall  be  sweet  unto 
them."  (D.  &  C.  42:46)  Their  salvation 
and  exaltation  in  the  world  to  come 
will  be  secure.  That  in  their  work 
of  destruction  they  will  be  striking  at 
their  brethren  will  not  be  held  against 
them.  That  sin,  as  Moroni  of  old  said, 
is  to  the  condemnation  of  those  who 
'sit  in  their  places  of  power  in  a  state 
of  thoughtless  stupor,'  those  rulers  in 
the  world  who  in  a  frenzy  of  hate 
and  lust  for  unrighteous  power  and 
dominion  over  their  fellow  men,  have 
put  into  motion  eternal  forces  they  do 
not  comprehend  and  cannot  control. 


96 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Monday.  April  6 

God,  in  His  own  due  time,  will  pass 
sentence  upon  them. 

Vengeance  is  mine;  I  will  repay,  saith 
the  Lord.  (Romans  12:19) 

Message  to  Men  in  Service 

rPo  our  young  men  who  go  into  serv- 
ice,  no  matter  whom  they  serve  or 
where,  we  say  live  clean,  keep  the  com- 
mandments of  the  Lord,  pray  to  Him 
constantly  to  preserve  you  in  truth  and 
righteousness,  live  as  you  pray,  and  then 
whatever  betides  you  the  Lord  will  be 
with  you  and  nothing  will  happen  to 
you  that  will  not  be  to  the  honor  and 
glory  of  God  and  to  your  salvation  and 
exaltation.  There  will  come  into  your 
hearts  from  the  living  of  the  pure  life 
you  pray  for,  a  joy  that  will  pass  your 
powers  of  expression  or  understand- 
ing. The  Lord  will  be  always  near 
you;  He  will  comfort  you;  you  will  feel 
His  presence  in  the  hour  of  your  great- 
est tribulation;  He  will  guard  and  pro- 
tect you  to  the  full  extent  that  accords 
with  His  all-wise  purpose.  Then,  when 
the  conflict  is  over  and  you  return  to 
your  homes,  having  lived  the  righteous 
life,  how  great  will  be  your  happiness — 
whether  you  be  of  the  victors  or  of  the 
vanquished — that  you  have  lived  as  the 
Lord  commanded.  You  will  return  so 
disciplined  in  righteousness  that 
thereafter  all  Satan's  wiles  and  strata- 
gems will  leave  you  untouched.  Your 
faith  and  testimony  will  be  strong  be- 
yond breaking.  You  will  be  looked  up 
to  and  revered  as  having  passed  through 
the  fiery  furnace  of  trial  and  tempta- 
tion and  come  forth  unharmed.  Your 
brethren  will  look  to  you  for  counsel, 
support,  and  guidance.  You  will  be  the 
anchors  to  which  thereafter  the  youth 
of  Zion  will  moor  their  faith  in  man. 

To  you  brethren  and  sisters  who 
make  up  the  body  of  the  Church  we 
send  again  our  greetings  and  our  bless- 
ings. We  are  grateful  to  our  Heavenly 
Father  for  your  loyalty,  your  devotion, 
and  your  righteousness.  We  love  and 
bless  you.  We  are  grateful  for  your 
faithfulness  in  your  tithes  and  offerings, 
the  greatest  in  the  last  year  in  the  whole 
history  of  the  Church. 

We  remind  you  that  as  the  Lord  said 


Third  Day 

to  ancient  Israel,  so  He  says  to  us,  in 
an  eternal  principle : 

Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  store- 
house, that  there  may  be  meat  in  mine 
house,  and  prove  me  now  herewith,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the 
windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a 
blessing,  that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough 
to  receive  it. 

And  I  will  rebuke  the  devourer  for  your 
sakes,  and  he  shall  not  destroy  the  fruits 
of  your  ground;  neither  shall  your  vine 
cast  her  fruit  before  the  time  in  the  field, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

And  all  nations  shall  call  you  blessed: 
for  ye  shall  be  a  delightsome  land,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts.  (Malachi  3:10-12) 

We  give  thanks  and  pfaise  to  our 
Heavenly  Father  for  the  unselfish  and 
righteous  service  of  the  officers  of  the 
stakes,  of  the  wards,  of  the  auxiliaries, 
of  the  Priesthood,  of  the  missionaries, 
and  of  every  man  and  woman  who  is 
helping  to  advance  the  cause  of  Truth. 
We  give  our  blessing  and  love  to  all 
of  you.  We  claim  all  of  you  as  fellow 
servants  of  the  Lord.  To  our  brethren  of 
the  General  Authorities, — the  Twelve 
and  their  Assistants,  the  Acting  Presid- 
ing Patriarch,  the  First  Council  of  the 
Seventy,  and  the  Presiding  Bishopric — 
we  give  our  love  and  trust.  We  thank 
them  and  our  Heavenly  Father  for  their 
loyal  support,  their  faith,  their  right- 
eous works,  which  they  carry  on  with 
an  eye  single  to  the  glory  of  God  and 
to  the  progress  of  His  work,  so  magni- 
fying in  righteousness  their  callings. 

We  exhort  all  the  Saints  to  remem- 
ber the  great  commandment  which 
Jesus  gave: 

Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind. 

This  is  the  first  and  great  command- 
ment. 

And  the  second  is  like  unto  it.  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 

On  these  two  commandments  hang  all 
the  law  and  the  prophets.  (Matt.  22:37-40) 

And  as  King  Benjamin,  the  Nephite 
prophet-king,  said  to  his  people: 

.  .  .  Learn  that  when  ye  are  in  the  serv- 
ice of  your  fellow  beings  ye  are  only  in 
the  service  of  your  God.  (Mosiah  2:17) 

May  the  Lord  preserve  the  officers 


PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT 


97 


and  the  body  of  the  Church  in  health 
and  strength,  increase  our  faith  and  our 
testimonies,  endow  us  all  with  wisdom 
and  understanding  beyond  measure, 
that  we  may  all  so  live  that  when  we 
are  called  home  we  may  be  saved  and 
exalted  in  the  celestial  kingdom. 

Our  Heavenly  Father:  Hear  us  in 
our  petitions  before  Thee :  Let  nothing 
stand  betwixt  us  and  Thee  and  Thy 
blessings;  work  out  Thy  purposes 
speedily;  drive  hate  from  the  souls  of 
men,  that  peace  and  brotherly  love  may 


again  come  to  the  earth  and  rule  the 
hearts  of  Thy  children,  that  nations  may 
again  live  together  in  amity.  Watch  ten- 
derly over  Thy  children  in  all  lands; 
bless  therein  the  sick  and  afflicted,  care 
for  those  in  distress;  help  us,  their  breth- 
ren bearing  Thy  Priesthood,  to  feed  the 
hungry,  clothe  the  naked,  give  shelter 
to  those  who  have  no  homes;  comfort, 
our  Heavenly  Father,  with  the  full 
sweetness  of  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  those 
who  mourn,  we  humbly  pray  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  Amen. 


PRESIDENT  HEBER  J.  GRANT 


Y°u  have  heard  the  message  of  the 
First  Presidency.  I  think  that  it 
is  unnecessary  for  me  to  add  any- 
thing further. 

As  I  said  yesterday  at  the  marvel- 
ous meeting  that  we  had  in  the  tem- 
ple, I  feel  that  it  is  not  wisdom  for 
me  to  stay  longer  on  account  of  my 
ill  health.  I  appreciate  the  fact  that 
you  all  know  as  I  have  said  so  often 
I  know  that  God  lives,  that  Jesus  is 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God, 
the  Redeemer  of  the  world,  and  that 
Joseph  Smith  was  His  Prophet. 

I  can  say  nothing  more  than  is 
said  in  this  message  from  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Church.  I  can  only 
hope  that  the  people  of  the  world 


may  realize  the  fact  that  we  are  in 
very  deed  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  not  the  Church  of  any  man,  and 
that  there  is  no  ambition  in  our  hearts 
for  personal  power  or  prestige  in  the 
world.  All  that  we  desire  is  the  sal- 
vation of  mankind.  May  God  help 
us. 

I  never  forget  one  little  statement, 
I  think  it  is  in  the  eighteenth  section 
of  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants: 
"And  if  it  so  be  that  you  should  labor 
all  your  days  in  crying  repentance 
unto  this  people,  and  bring,  save  it 
be  one  soul  unto  me,  how  great  shall 
be  your  joy  with  him  in  the  kingdom 
of  my  Father!" 

God  bless  you  all.  Amen. 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 

Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

For  the  information  of  the  brethren  from  Canada  I  am  requested  to 
say  that  as  the  number  of  missionaries  now  sent  from  the  United  States 
to  Canada  will  be  fewer  than  heretofore,  and  as  there  is  no  Selective  Draft 
in  that  Dominion  missionaries  in  Canada  may  be  recommended  as  here- 
tofore.  They  will  remain  in  Canada  in  the  Canadian  missions. 

PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 

The  congregation  will  now  sing,  "Come,  Let  Us  Anew"  (No.  21  in 
your  Pamphlet;  Hymn  Book,  page  51 ). 

The  closing  prayer  will  be  offered  by  President  T.  George  Wood  of 
Taylor  Stake,  after  which  this  Conference  will  stand  adjourned  sine  die. 


98  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 

Monday.  April  6  Third  Day 

The  congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "Come,  Let  Us  Anew"  (Hymn 
Book,  page  51 ). 

Elder  T.  George  Wood,  President  of  the  Taylor  Stake,  offered  the 
benediction. 

Conference  adjourned  sine  die. 

The  congregational  singing  was  directed  by  J.  Spencer  Cornwall  and 
Richard  P.  Condie,  Conductor  and  Assistant  Conductor,  respectively,  of 
the  Tabernacle  Choir.  Organ  accompaniments  were  played  by  Frank 
W.  Asper,  Alexander  Schreiner,  and  Wade  N.  Stephens,  Tabernacle 
Organists. 

The  music  of  the  Tabernacle  Choir  and  Organ  Broadcast,  and  also 
of  the  Church  of  the  Air  Broadcast,  was  directed  by  }.  Spencer  Cornwall. 
Organ  accompaniments  and  solo  presentations  for  these  broadcasts  were 
played  by  Frank  W.  Asper. 

Stenographic  notes  of  the  Conference  were  taken  by  Frank  W. 
Otterstrom  and  Joseph  Anderson. 

JOSEPH  ANDERSON, 

Clerk  of  the  Conference. 


i 


\ 


Index 


Adams,  Orval  W   76 

Annual  Report    76 

Ashton",  Elder  Marvin  O  45 

Auditing  Committee's  Report  ....76 

Authorities  Present    1 

Authorities  Sustained   83 

Auxiliary  Officers  Sustained  ......83 

Bennion,  Elder  Samuel  0  53 

Bishops  who  have  passed   81 

Bowen,  Elder  Albert  E.  57 

Callis,  Elder  Charles  A  42 

Cannon,  Elder  Sylvester  Q  44 

Changes  in  Officers  79 

Changes  in  Stake  Presidents   79 

Choir  and  Organ  Broadcast  62 

Church  of  the  Air  Broadcast  63 

Church  Officers  Sustained  83 

Church  Welfare  Committee  Sus- 
tained 84 

Church  Welfare  Program  77 

Clark,  President  J.  Reuben,  Jr. 

 2,  11,  36,  37,  38, 

43,  44, 55,  56, 61,  70.  74,  75,  76,  97 
Clawson,  President  Rudger  11 

Deaths  80 

Evans,  Elder  Richard  L  5,  50 

Financial  Statement   76 

First  Day,  Afternoon  Meeting. ...22 

First  Day,  Evening  Meeting  37 

First  Day,  Morning  Meeting    2 

General  Authorities  Sustained  ....83 

General  Auxiliary  Officers  Sus- 
tained  85 

General  Officers  of  the  Church 
Sustained   ,  83 

Grant,  President  Heber  J  2,  97 

Hardy,  Elder  Rufus  K  51 

Independent     Branches  made 

Wards   80 

Ivins,  Elder  Antoine  R  47 

Kirkham,  Elder  Oscar  A  54 


Lee,  Elder  Harold  B  85 

Lyman,  Elder  Richard  R  29 

McKay,    President    David  O. 

 70,  81,  97 

McKay,  Elder  Thomas  E  20 

Merrill,  Elder  Joseph  F  38 

Message  of  the  First  Presidency.. 88 
Our  Testimonies,  88 — Message  to  Par- 
ents, 88 — Message  to  the  Youth,  89 — 
Welfare  Work,  89— False  Political 
Isms,  90 — Gospel  of  Love,  90 — Hate 
must  be  Abolished,  90 — Mission  of  the 
Church,  91 — Sending  of  Missionaries, 
91— Church  and  State,  92— Church 
Membership  and  Army  Service,  93 — 
God  is  at  the  Helm,  95 — Righteous 
Suffer  with  the  Wicked,  95 — Message 
to  Men  in  Service,  96. 

New  Independent  Branches  80 

New  Mission  Presidents   79 

New  Stakes  Organized  ...79 

New  Wards  Organized   80 

Officers  Present   1 

Richards,  Elder  George  F  22 

Richards,  Bishop  LeGrand  34 

Richards,  Elder  Stephen  L   64 

Romney,  Elder  Marion  G  17 

Second  Day,  Morning  Meeting.. 56 

Smith,  Elder  George  Albert  13 

Smith,  Elder  Joseph  Fielding  25 

Smith,  Elder  Nicholas  G  53 

Sonne,  Elder  Alma   37 

Special  Appointments   79 

Tabernacle    Choir    and  Organ 

Broadcast   62 

Taylor,  Elder  John  H  52 

Testimony  Meeting   75 

Third  Day,  Morning  Meeting  75 

Ward  and  Branch  Changes  79 

Wards  Transferred  80 

Wards  Disorganized   80 

Widtsoe,  Elder  John  A  32 

Wirthlin,  Elder  Joseph  L  48 

Young,  Elder  Clifford  E  47 

Young,  Elder  Levi  Edgar  28 


Teachings  of  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith 

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Taken  from  his  sermons  and  writings  as  they  are  found  in  the  Documentary 
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Many  of  these  discourses  and  writings  appear  in  the  Documentary 
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